On a Sad Note

About a week ago one of our cats, Badger, ate something he shouldn't have. We took him to the vet and they sedated him so he wouldn't have anymore seizures. The vet figured he got into some nuts that are laced with strictnine (rat poison). People put this stuff out to kill moles, rabbits, squirrels, etc. Anyway, I noticed that Badger was having small seizures last Sunday night so we took him into the vet clinic right away Monday morning. He stayed at the clinic until Wednesday afternoon when the vet felt that he was well enough to go home. Badger had eaten some food and was drinking plenty of water on his own. He was still pretty shaky on his feet, but otherwise seemed fine. The vet was optimistic that he would have a full recovery. Louis had to work through Thanksgiving, but the kids and I (and the dog) went up to Milford, IA to visit Grandpa Jack and Grandma Lynne. We had a great extended weekend. Louis called us on Saturday to ask his dad (a vet) about Badger. It seems he had thrown up and now had stopped eating(as well as Simba, our other cat)...who, incidently, avoided Badger and growled and hissed at him when he did come in contact with him. That was the start of Badgers decline. By the time we got home Sunday afternoon at 2pm he had bloody mucus coming out of his nose and mouth and he couldn't control his mouth enough to even drink water. We tried to make him as comfortable as possible. I gave him some aspirin, hoping to get enough into him to help him fall asleep, but he had difficulty swallowing, so I think all I accomplished was to take away any pain he was feeling. Caisha was by his side the rest of the evening until she finally crawled into bed, exhausted, around 11p. Badger would purr whenever we were with him, so I think he was pretty content at the end. Around 4am(Monday) Louis checked on him and was going to take him to the vet college in Ames to have him euthenized, but as he was walking down the stairs, he said Badger looked up at him, meowed one last time and took his last breath. They never made it to the vet college. It has been heartbreaking for all of us to say goodbye, but I think Badger held on long enough so we all could say goodbye. Once he knew everybody had said goodbye, he let himself go. He was only a little over 2 years old, so that makes it very hard to accept. We will all miss him terribly!