Psalty, my faithful poker buddy, is ill.

On June 3rd I said that I would put up a post the next day, but  something happened.  Our oldest cat, Psalty, is 21 years old, and she is very ill.  She was with us when we adopted our 3 children, and she was here when all 3 left to be on their own.  My youngest son is married and has three children, and I have taught them how to be gentle with her.

Psalty is my faithful poker buddy, who cries and stares at the closed office door when I'm not playing, and if I leave the office, she cries for me to come back in.  Lately, she has even been eating in the office.  She gets on the filing cabinet (her "I want food" signal), and I have to run to the refrigerator and get her food after I fold a hand.  She loves being in he office with me, and 30 seconds of petting is enough to get her purring for 5 or 10 minutes before she falls asleep.  As she started to fail, I could keep an eye on her while she would claim one of her two favorite spots, either on the desk to the left of the monitor, or on top of a blanket that I put on top of the printer.

But it's almost over now.  I can't have her in the office any more, because I can never tell when she might get sick and damage something in the office.  She is sleeping in the living room right now, and before she wakes up, I'll be there with her.  Psalty can't come to the office, so I go to Psalty.  There will be no more poker until Psalty is gone, and I can't imagine what it will be like to play without her.  My wife and I are spending every minute with her that we can, and she won't be alone during the time that she has left.

We are going to have her put down on Thursday, 2 days from now, when my wife and I will both be with her for the last time.  Psalty is still purring, more cuddly than ever, and happy.  She is losing function, but so far is not in a lot of pain, and there doesn't seem to be any organ failure.  We're not going to wait for that to happen. There is no reason that she should suffer.

I'll be back to playing, and posting, when Psalty no longer needs us.  It is fitting that the last day that she was with me in the office, we won a 200-player tournament.