As it turned out, a traumatic event brought the decision around sooner than we expected. Emmy had a habit of sleeping in the driveway, and generally wasn't inclined to move out of the way in a hurry. Even if she wasn't already in the driveway, she'd often make a mad dash across it in the nick of time. We would shake our heads and say, "One day, one of us is going to run over that silly cat."
Well, it ended up being me. I had checked the driveway and made sure she wasn't there, so maybe she attempted one of her dashes. I certainly wasn't reversing quickly, but I caught her with the back wheel. She took off, clearly in agony, but thankfully not too far away. While she lay in the grass, licking her wounds, I ran into the house and grabbed a box to put her in. We got to the vet and they took her straight out the back to sedate her and reduce the pain. The diagnosis was that she had a badly broken pelvis. Not an easy fix, considering her age and condition. After discussion with all family members, the agreement was reached that it would be kinder to put Emmy to sleep. There were tears all round ... it's not the way anyone wants to lose an animal, especially not one that has been such a big part of the family.
15 years ago we lived in the house across the road. The family in our current house had a cat who gave birth to a litter of kittens and they managed to find homes for all of them, except this little one with the strange face markings. We were busy with toddlers and renovating, and already had two cats, so we weren't keen for another, but we took her in. Her striking orange and black colours reminded me of "embers" in a fire, so we called her Emmy. In the time we've had her, we've lost the other two cats, as well as gained and lost two dogs. She broke her foot when she was three years old (to this day we don't know what happened, she just came home with it like that one day). We spent nearly $400 getting it fixed, and she was worth every penny. We nearly lost her to a paralysis tick when she was young too. She moved house with us three times and was particularly happy to get back to this neighbourhood. We had to watch her when we first moved in, because she wanted to go across the road all the time. I don't think she had much memory of this house, but she did remember the one where she spent the first half of her life with us.
Being only 18 months younger than our daughter, she really did grow up with our kids. She put up with all the rough treatment they dished out when they were little and clumsy, then she'd sleep with them at night. She didn't really like being picked up for cuddles (although she tolerated it), but she'd pick a lap to sit on in front of the telly when she wanted to be close. We got another kitten last year and Emmy looked at us as if it were just typical of us to inconvenience her like this. If a cat could raise her eyebrows and sigh at her humans, she'd have done it. They got used to each other though, and young Panda is now wondering where her old friend has gone.
It seems fitting that we have been able to bury Emmy here at the house she was born in. She is in one of her favourite spots, where we can plant a garden over her and make it really special.
Just as she was.
