Good Riddance, Kiska!

Today, I had to do something that was very hard.  I took Kiska to the pound.  :-(

Here are the last couple pictures that I took of her today:

She was napping in a sunny spot with her tongue sticking out.

It breaks my heart that I actually did it, and I feel like a wretch because she's been part of this family for 10-1/2 years, and now all of a sudden she's whisked away to sit confined in a small cage, surrounded by other kitties.  And she has no clue as to why, why, why?!  Poor Kiska.

I wish I could've made her understand before I had to take this measure.

But here's why:

She would not use the litterbox!

A very trivial thing for her, but a very big deal for me.

We got her when she was a kitten:

... and we enjoyed her fluffy cuteness for 10-1/2 years.  

Even when she was a kitten, I knew she wasn't very healthy and prepared myself to deal with problems that she would probably have.  For starters, she had runny eyes all the time.  The vet said she had some kind of virus, probably a herpes virus, and there wasn't anything I could do for her except maybe slip some Lysine in her food.

Then she was seriously constipated.  It was terrible listening to her crying so loud every time she tried to poop, which often came out with blood.  Poor thing.  And because of that, she started pooping outside the litterbox.  The vet said it was because she was associating the litterbox with pain.  I had sympathy on her, so I patiently waited it out.
And I suppose this was the beginning of her litterbox woes.

Then for awhile she was fine and we had no problems.

Then winter hit.  For some strange unknown reason, she would get diarrhea twice a year - once in the winter, and again in spring/summer.  Then I had to muster up more patience as I dealt with a VERY STINKY cat, who left poopy butt prints on everything that she sat on, so I had to resort to giving her baths in the kitchen sink which of course she hated.

Then she would be fine again.  Then she would get stressed about something and start peeing on someone's bed, and this would last a few weeks, while I tolerated it and again waited it out with an irritated kind of patience.  (I can name plenty of people who probably would've shot her in the head by then, but I apparently am a very patient person.) Then she would be fine again.  She would keep going back and forth like that all the years that we had her, and I began to entertain wicked thoughts of hoping she would get hit by a car, or maybe an eagle or a hawk would snatch her up.  (does that make me a bad person?)

Then last year she got sick with a urinary tract infection.  The antibiotics cured her, but the habit of peeing outside her litterbox got worse and did not go away.  This was now a fixed habit that was here to stay.  Ever since then, her favorite place to pee was ON MY COUCH!  And it was EVERY DAY, TWICE A DAY!!  (sometimes three!) We had to throw out one of our couches because we could not get the cat pee smell out of it.  I knew she would then choose to start peeing on our other couch, so I kept it protected with plastic underneath a blanket.  So every day, twice a day, I had to change the coverings and wash them.  Then she started pooping on it as well, and Chuck and I started throwing around the "P" word (P is for pound).

I deterred this habit and tested her for a couple days by placing the plastic on top of the blanket, knowing she wouldn't pee on a plastic sheet.  I was hoping it would work, but instead of going to her litterbox, her next choice was MY BED.  Okay, that was a mistake.  So it was back to the couch.

Twice a day, every day.

I thought my wash machine was gonna wear out.

At 10 years old, I knew she still had some years left in her yet, and Chuck and I both agreed that this is a habit that is here to stay, and I didn't wanna keep dealing with this twice a day, every day for the next 5-10 years.

No way.

Plus, we both agreed that it was only a matter of time before she moved on to another piece of furniture, or worse - the carpet.

So I had to do the inevitable and take her to the pound, knowing full well that no one is gonna want her with that habit, thus knowing full well what will happen to her.

I don't wanna think about it.

Anyway, here is how she has spent the last week here.

As I was preparing to sandwich my quilt, she was right there to hold it down for me.  Or maybe she was just there to be in my way.

Here I'm trying to lay out my batting while trying to work around her.

And here she is enjoying a nap on it after I got it all pinned together.

As you can see, she's good company.  I will miss her when I'm scrapbooking cuz she always follows me and keeps me company whenever I go upstairs to work on my scrapbooks.

It really breaks my heart that I had to betray her like this.

But, at the same time, it really does help to be mad at her.

Bossy, on the other hand:

She doesn't give a hoot, and as soon as she realizes that Kiska is gone for good, she will be doing cartwheels.  She hated Kiska with a passion and got really grouchy if Kiska was even in the same room as her.

And now, Bossy is the queen of the house.

For now.

Until we get another kitten, which we are already talking about.

For me, I will enjoy getting up in the morning and NOT having to start the morning routine by washing the couch covers, only to wash it again later in the afternoon.  AND, I will be able to sit down on the couch without first having to sniff it to make sure it hadn't been peed on since the last washing.  And when we have guests over, I won't have to embarrassingly warn them about sitting in cat pee.

So, yes, I did shed a few tears, but it really does help make this less painful when I am mad at her. All I have to do is think about cat pee on my couch, and the tears no longer flow.

Other news:

We had SNOW!

But alas!  It was all gone within an hour or two.

Other than that, there's nothing else to report, other than I have been working on a "secret project", which I will reveal to you in due time.  I have been pretty obsessed with it, and it is the reason why I've been writing letters and making phone calls and connecting with people that I hadn't been connected with in a long time.  I'm very excited, but I cannot spill the beans just yet.

  Next week we will be visiting Stephanie and Isaac in Fairbanks, so maybe I will have something to write about after that trip.

 I must keep myself busy so I don't think about Kiska too much.