It
is with great sadness that I report the death of one of our beloved longtime family
cats, Cooper, who was put to sleep this afternoon, at the age of roughly 17 and
a half. Diagnosed with some type of cancer a number of weeks ago, there wasn’t
much that could be done at his age and in his condition, so we tried to make
his last few weeks as comfortable as could be. As I’ve been very close to him
for years now, this was a somewhat devastating loss, as you can imagine, yet
there is also relief that his suffering is over... my last words to him as he
was being put to sleep were, I believe, “We all love you.”
We
first got Cooper in late September 2002, a few weeks after the passing of one
of our other beloved family cats, Rusty. At the time, I was still in college,
which is a good indication of how long we had Cooper. He was around 6-9 months
old when we got him, and initially was quite scrawny, but in his elder years he
became something of a shy, meek and friendly gentle giant (his meowing was
always very quiet, almost more like a squeaking)... though these last few
months his weight dropped quite dramatically due to his illness, to the extent
that towards the end he only weighed a little over 10 pounds.
Some
of his nicknames included (but were not limited to) The Badger, the Ring-tailed
Ocelot (on account of the stripes on his tail), Skeezis, Sméagol, Whilliker Whiskers,
Prof. Plum, the Maine Coon (as it was suspected he had some Maine Coon genes in
him), Cooper Kid, and, back when he used to be much heavier, the Big Bopper, the Really Big
Bopper, Alfred Hitchcat, and Samwell Tarly. He enjoyed tearing up the red felt
chair in the den, devouring plants and flowers, and, though not a lap cat,
appreciated being petted, especially beneath the chin and on the sides (when he
was petted, he would often “knead” the air with his claws). Sometimes he would
give me little “love nips” on the arm as well.
In
his latter years, Cooper would begin to spend more and more time in the family
den. I would usually visit him there each night for a few minutes, after my
shower: one thing he liked to do often was flop down on the ground in front of
the desk and have his side/under his chin petted. Towards the end he stopped
doing that because it had probably become too painful for him to move... yet
last night, when I went to check on him before going to bed, he did this again,
if only for a few minutes. I prefer to interpret this as his way of saying
goodbye to me, even if it were unconscious on his part, and I’m grateful I got
to do it one last time.
Although
Cooper never really bonded all that much with our other cat Amber (the two
WOULD sometimes share a bed or a couch, always on opposite ends, however), he
was very close to one of our other cats, Chandler, who sadly passed away a number
of years ago at a very young age (back in March 2007). In some ways the two
were like brothers, and Cooper became a somewhat different cat in temperament
after Chandler was gone. I like to think that their spirits are reunited, now
that Cooper has passed beyond the Great, Bloody and Bruised Veil of This World
(to reference the title of one of my favorite Current 93 songs). He leaves
behind a “brother” (Griffin the dog) and a “sister” (Amber the cat). RIP
Cooper... you will be missed!
Most
of these pictures were taken by me, though a few were also taken by various
family members. I’ll probably share a few more sporadically over the coming
months.
(photos 1-4: Cooper, as he looked in 2002, when we first got him)
(Cooper & Chandler, 2005)
(Amber & Cooper, on my bed)
(More shots of Cooper on my bed)
(Cooper in 2018)
(Cooper in 2019, in January)
(My last solo photograph of Cooper, taken on his last night, around 1:40 AM, July 1st, 2019)
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