Kadie

We got Kadie when we first were engaged, living in Vallejo in our great little apartment and Adam worked nights and I was teaching during the day. She was really my first pet. She was such a sweet kitten and very possessive of me. We got Riley a few months later and those were our 'kids' until, well, you know. I used to give her bottled water to drink, she was a spoiled little thing for quite some time!! Ha! She could hold her own against anything or anyone. One day when we lived in FL the first time around (00-01) she got out of the house and went after our neighbors dog and won. She was good with the kids, but kept her distance. She was beautiful – a tuxedo cat and she kept herself very clean and soft. She had attitude for days and we loved her.

So, last October Kadie became ill, had similar symptoms as Riley did when he died. After doing some testing with the vet, but again in a spot where we could go overboard with all the tests and costs and still not have a definitive answer. She wasn't eating and a feeding tube was discussed, but the quality of life was also an issue too. We tried some meds to see if we might get lucky, but her liver levels were already so over the top and gone, it seemed inevitable that we would lose her too. And we did. We had her cremated and the pet cemetery gave us this really sweet poem in a matte with some of her fur and her paw print. There is a place for her picture. I wasn't expecting to get that at all, but it really was comforting. I wish we would have had received that with Riley's ashes too.

After Kadie passed a way, my stepmom sent me this email about Swiffer wet jets and that they can be poisonous to animals and children. From what I can deduct, there isn't anything concrete, but a lot of personal accounts of people whose pets died and they all had liver issues and symptoms like our 2 cats. It is really strange. You have to really wonder about that. I did use a wet jet for a long time in OK and FL and they say cats walk on the chemicals and then lick it off their paws when they groom. We thought Riley had a tumor on his liver, but he never had an ultrasound. Kadie had an informal ultrasound (not by a specialist, just the vet. We didn't have that option with Riley) and there wasn't a tumor in Kadie. The circumstances of the accounts I read are just so similar with our story, we just really wonder if that is what happened to our Kadie & Riley. We still have Harry and so far he hasn't been ill, but I know I used the wet jet more before we got Harry than after.

Whatever the case, I miss Kadie and Riley. I still 'see' Kadie on top of the recliner, one of her favorite spots; it is hard to not actually see her there. She would sit there and kind of nuzzle into my hair while I fed the baby or relaxed. I miss that.