Had a great night of fun activities and playing games with the kiddos to ring in the new year, only to have to let them know one of our cats died at some point between 2 am when I went to sleep and 7 am when I woke up. Only saw our other cat while drinking my coffee and it wasn't until 10 am when everyone woke up that we wondered where Buttercup was at, as I just assumed she was sleeping in one of the kid's rooms.
After a few minutes of searching, I noticed a few pools of blood behind the TV stand and told the kids to go back upstairs with our other cat, Peanut, until we found Buttercup. She was in the corner behind the stand and rigor had already set in. From what I can tell, she either ate something foreign that perforated her upper digestive track (my thoughts) or had a fall with internal bleeding.
I spent the next 15 minutes cleaning up the blood and removing her body while my wife was sitting on the couch crying. I called the kids downstairs afterwards and broke the news. After around 5 minutes of crying my son asked if he could see her, so I spent a little time cleaning up the blood from the body and positioning her in a box so it wouldn't show. They were able to give her one last pet and Peanut was also able to say goodbye.
My wife found something online about taking paw print molds, so I did that right before I dug a hole at the corner of our property and placed her down, again to hide any additional blood seeping out of her mouth since the kids wanted to see her buried.
So now it's going to be a day of intermittent crying and grieving while also trying to keep their spirits up. Currently having a silly string battle in the yard.
RIP Buttercup
After a few minutes of searching, I noticed a few pools of blood behind the TV stand and told the kids to go back upstairs with our other cat, Peanut, until we found Buttercup. She was in the corner behind the stand and rigor had already set in. From what I can tell, she either ate something foreign that perforated her upper digestive track (my thoughts) or had a fall with internal bleeding.
I spent the next 15 minutes cleaning up the blood and removing her body while my wife was sitting on the couch crying. I called the kids downstairs afterwards and broke the news. After around 5 minutes of crying my son asked if he could see her, so I spent a little time cleaning up the blood from the body and positioning her in a box so it wouldn't show. They were able to give her one last pet and Peanut was also able to say goodbye.
My wife found something online about taking paw print molds, so I did that right before I dug a hole at the corner of our property and placed her down, again to hide any additional blood seeping out of her mouth since the kids wanted to see her buried.
So now it's going to be a day of intermittent crying and grieving while also trying to keep their spirits up. Currently having a silly string battle in the yard.
RIP Buttercup
