In Loving Memory

Yesterday morning I got some very sad news. Friday night, my parents noticed that our cat Marley was acting strange. He couldn't climb up the stairs and he was having a hard time breathing. They'd never seen him act that way before and were worried. Early this morning they took Marley to the vet to see what was wrong with him. After doing some tests they found out that the reason why he was having such a hard time breathing was because his body was filled with fluid, and that fluid was pressing against his lungs, making it so he couldn't breathe. The doctor told my parents that it could be congestive heart failure, and that they could drain the fluid so Marley could breathe. This morning I woke up early because I was planning on going to two baby showers. My Mom calls me telling what's going on with Marley, and tells me that my dad and her don't know what to do, because draining the fluid would cost them $1,000 to do the procedure and there was no guarantee that it would work. He could either die during the procedure or that wouldn't fix the main problem.. They hooked Marley onto an IV and put him in an oxygen tent so he could breathe easier while my family talked to each of us kids about what they should do.

You can see his pink IV

This is his x-ray

During this time I was attending two baby showers and was having hard trying to act happy during this. When I got out of one of them, I got a text from my Mom saying, "Marley is ok now, we just left the Vet, we're going home to bury him." I called my Mom in tears asking how what happened, she told me that my sister Caitlin and my little brother Cameron were able to come and say goodbye to Marley before they put him to sleep. Caitlin later told me that when she walked in the vet everyone was crying, my Mom, Dad, and Cameron. They decided that they didn't want Marley to suffer anymore because at this time he wasn't able to move, that putting him to sleep was the best way to let him go.

Caitlin and Cameron crying

Caitlin and Cameron crying some more

This whole day I've felt like crap, that a piece of me is gone, and I've been crying all day. I know a lot of people will say, come on it's a cat! That's the thing, it's not. Marley was a part of our family. I grew up with him. For 11 years he was there catching and eating birds, sneaking on the top of the fridge to get into the cat nip, playing his friend Stu (another tabby that lived across the street), having him sleep on my chest while I was trying to sleep, and how he would always comb through my hair with his claws when I was lying in bed, and I 'll never forget when Melanie took that infamous picture of him in a pink nighty she got at Target. I was able to see Marley when Mckay and I went up to Centerville during Conference weekend. I was able to hang out with him for a while.

I remember the day we got him. We were up at this animal hospital because our former cat Pinky, had skin cancer and we had to put him to sleep. While the doctors were doing this, we went and looked at the cats and dogs that were available to adopt. That's when we saw Marley. He was this cute small tabby with this kinked tail at the tip. On New Year's Eve on 1996 we brought Marley home. When we got Marley we were reading A Christmas Carol, and Marley the ghost is who we named him after.

After the vet put down Marley, they wrapped him in a box and my little brother Cameron made him this tombstone. I love it how he mispelled his name.

My family burried Marley next to Pinky on top of the hill above our backyard. Look how sad my little brother looks. Marley was Cameron's bed mate, everynight without fail he would sleep on the foot of his bunk bead. My brother is having the hardest time out of all of us.

Rest in peace Marley

This might sound way cheesy, but I do believe that we'll see our pets again. The things that we loved and cherished here on earth we'll be reunited with them again. I heart you Marley. We'll miss you so very much!