Thursday

My cat Uma is dying. Part of me wants to have her put to sleep because she's basically starving to death from kidney failure or what I call the "Terrible Disease," an incurable autoimmune disease with a long medical name. I believe in letting nature take its course and that an animal has the right to die in its own time, but it's really hard to watch as a once healthy-looking animal just wastes away in front of your eyes. I haven't brought Uma to the vet because she's not the first one to go through what she's going through. Most of my Tampa Heights cats are dying of either kidney failure or the Terrible Disease, and no amount of money is going to stop them from dying. Tampa Heights was hell for my animals and me. We made out of there alive but not without residual effects - me who developed high blood pressure living there and my cats who were born and raised outdoors by stray, often sickly mothers, and caught/developed all sorts of ailments. And even though now we're in a better place, we still bear the scars of our life there, and some scars don't heal. So I pray for Uma, that she dies peacefully, surrounded by her brothers and sisters, and me who loves her.