About 7 years ago, my family and I rescued Sophie, a beautiful german shepherd, from the local animal shelter. She has been a wonderful addition to our family and I can’t imagine life without her. I walk her in the morning when I get up and when I come home from work. She never barks at anyone and gets along great with the children. She is a gentle soul.

We had also adopted a cat about six years ago. His name was Cody. My son was playing football and one of the other mothers came up to us and told us that her mother has passed away and she had three cats that they didn’t know what to do with. We took in Cody, a pure bred himilayan cat. I have never known a cat like him – you’d have sworn he was a dog. Every day when I came home from work, he was there at the door to greet me. He came running when you called his name. When it was time to put the kids to bed, he would cuddle up next to each one of them until they fell asleep and then he would move on to the next – he was a busy cat too, because I have four children. Then, after they were all asleep, he would come in our room and lay in between my wife and me at our feet. My grandmother, who HATED cats, loved Cody and didn’t mind him sitting next to her when she came to visit. He was a valued member of our family. He even knew when we were sick and would just lay there next to us to comfort us.

One day, Cody was meowing a lot more than usual and he was walking funny. He seemed to be in a great deal of pain and we thought that maybe one of the kids accidentally stepped on his paw or something. He continued to meow that morning, so after dropping the children off at school, my wife and I took him to the veterinarian to try to help him. After they examined him, they determined that he had a blood clot in his back and that there really wasn’t anything we could do. They could operate on him, but they didn’t think it would take care of the problem.

Mark, this came out of nowhere. He was absolutely fine the day before. He was in terrible pain and we didn’t know what to do. We did not want to see him suffer. We loved him. It was one of the hardest decisions we ever had to make – we had him put to sleep. I don’t think we’ve ever cried that much. God forgive me, but I didn’t cry that much when my Grandmother died and I really loved her. I held Cody in my arms and they shaved his paw and gave him a needle. He meowed and looked right at me. We told him that we loved him and my wife and I were both petting him when he finally went to sleep. It’s making me tear up just typing this.

The worst was yet to come, though. We still had to tell the children – they were in school and they didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to him. The pain and hurt was intense – I can understand what you must have gone though with Sprite. We told the kids that Cody was up in heaven with Grandmom, keeping her company. It was just such a shock and it was very hard for all of us to deal with it. Even Sophie missed her – the two of them used to lay next to each other in the living room and they got along very well.

We’ve had other cats after Cody, but none of them measured up to him – he was one of a kind. Sophie is still with us, and I hope she will be for many years to come. I hope you enjoyed reading about my pets – pets who became family members and loved us unconditionally.

Mark from MD