![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Goodbye, My Best Friend
Nov. 3rd, 2021 10:27 pmRest In Peace, Moji (Mojo Jojo/Moj/Momo/Mojo/Jojo)
February 1, 2016 - November 3, 2021
My little chaton, my sweet darling Moji, my best friend. Let me share her life story.
My brother had a friend on Facebook offering up kittens, as their cat just had a bunch of babies. After checking with my boyfriend, I told my brother to let his friend know that we wanted one! I got prepared by purchasing food and water dishes (which are still in use to this day!), a litter box, scratching post, teaser toy, and ball, and set up my room - so excited! Before I went to go pick her up, my brother's friend replied to let me know that they actually gave away all the kittens and there were none left. I was disappointed. But then, a little while later, they let me know that they actually found one more kitten they didn't know they still had, the runt of the group, under a bed. I was so delighted, and went over with my friend Kailei to pick up the kitten.
I don't remember much about picking her up from her first owners - it was a quick exchange. I remember a bunch of shoes by the front door. I remember that while we were in the car with Moji, I saw who had to be her parents - two adult cats who were long, white, and graceful running outside and out of sight. I took a few pictures of Moji with Kailei.
Moji was covered in fleas really bad, which concerned us since she was so young. We went and got a flea shampoo to bathe her, brought her home, and Kailei, more experienced with animals, gave her a bath in our bathroom sink. I remember how infested she was with fleas, and her little wonky/winky right eye that she had for the rest of her life.
I was so excited to watch you play, Moji. She was a little skittish but still played. She at first, though, would hide under our bed. It was where her old owners found her, so we guessed it was where she felt safest. She liked the smooth surface of the mirror and always would love to run her two front paws over smooth surfaces, like our mirror or trash can or laundry basket. She also loved hiding in bags from the very beginning. When she was small enough, she would jump on top of my books in my bookshelf. When she got older, she would jump up on the very top of my bookshelf! I loved her so much immediately. Look how cute... awake one moment and asleep the next.
I loved taking care of you and watching you grow. I remember counting down the minutes and being so anxious to leave work because I was so eager to get home to you and see how you had been and pet and love you! Even after a few years, I recall still wanting to get the heck home so I could be with you, Moji.
By the way, her name, Mojo Jojo, came about by way of young baby Evelyn. She had three rats: Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. So, we had a cat now, and she had to be the foe of the Power Puff Girls, except she didn't really mind the rats that much at all.
Moji would sleep with us and often would curl up in my lap when she was younger. She had litter box troubles pretty much her whole life. She wouldn't use it often to pee or poo fairly often... if she could get away uncaught, she would go on the floor instead along a wall. I never got angry at her, because I knew she had a rough start with the other family. I would sometimes catch her while she was going on the floor...she often wouldn't stop once she started. I would sometimes even pick her up and try to put her in her litter box -- poop or pee trailing behind us. I could never get mad at her. I like never got mad at her. I just couldn't. She was too precious, she was my baby. She liked to stay near me as soon as she warmed up to us, which was pretty quick -- just the first day or so was she staying more under our bed. She would sit on my laptop whenever given a chance, and liked to sit next to my desktop, too, often right in front of the monitor. She liked to jump up on counters -- she was a great jumper! She was always super graceful and practically floated up so effortlessly. She always amazed me with her jumps. She also was fast! She was always running from room to room, a white blur. I loved when she would do a little hop before launching into a run. Moji was also very talkative! She had all sorts of different meows and chirps as greetings, wanting attention, or just chatting. I loved her super expressive face, too. You could tell when she was happy or relaxed or thinking hard. She had big lovely eyes and her face just seemed to change with her moods. She would hang out with me in the bathroom so often I just started leaving the door cracked ajar always. She would plop down right at my feet. She was my girl.
She would sometimes run in a circle chasing her tail. She liked sitting in spaces that were too small for her, including tiny boxes or bags. She would fall asleep on the window sill when she was older and sometimes fall off and that would make me sad. She often would sit in my window in my bedroom, and for a long time, could often be found there. I made up songs for her all of the time. Moji-in-the-window is one of them! I could see her in the window as I drove into my parking spot and it would make me smile. Sometimes when taking out trash, I'd stop outside my window to say hi to her. She found out when she was a bit older that she loved being outside. In her final weeks, we would have to rush in or out of the house because she would time it and pay attention to the door and rush out. She would lick the sidewalk and roll around in the sunlight. She loved to try to eat plants. I had gotten her quite a few cat grasses because of her love for eating plants. On one of her final days, I let her walk wherever she wanted to, and we spent nearly an hour outside just exploring. She went the furthest she had ever been.
She was big sis to our other cat that we got a few months after her, Trixie. Moji would often groom Trixie. They would play together and sometimes play fight and then it would be more real fighting, but nothing serious. Usually just hissing. Trixie was always more aggro than Moji, but Moji could pin her also. I loved when they would sleep right next to each other. Moji was a good big sister for sure!
She liked to hang out in the shower/bath tub. She would run and then like a race horse, hop over the side of the tub and then chill in there. She would sometimes surprise me after a shower and when I opened the shower door, she would be outside waiting for me. She was always interested in water. She actually stopped drinking from her cat water fountain at some time and drank from our drinking water faucet at the sink. Luka didn't like it but I didn't care. I thought it was super cute. Earlier, she would drink from the fountain too, but pretty much after her first heart failure, she drank exclusively from our faucet. She would also often hang out on the back of the toilet, notably when she wasn't feeling well. The whole day before her first heart failure, she stayed on the back of our toilet tank and didn't move. Poor girl.
I tried my best to be a good mom. I did the things. I got the pet insurance through work. I took her to the vet for all of her shots and regular appointments. I got her microchipped in case she got lost. I got her spayed. And I loved the shit out of her. She was my long cat! I loved how she would stretch and seemed insanely long. I think she was a Turkish Van mix... the vet had her down as an American shorthair but she definitely had some Turkish Van in her!
She often slept curled up in a ball, but she would fall asleep anywhere in the house. She liked to chill in obscure places, and if it was soft or comfy, she for sure would try to sleep on it. She would often want to be petted, and would arch her back for me. She grew to enjoy being pet, when at first she was more unsure and skittish. She liked being pet on her back and by her tail, but also liked for me to rub under her cheeks and also the top of her head. Sometimes if you pet her too much, she would get worked up and then nip at you to tell you that was enough. If I was off on their feeding schedule, she would sometimes wake me up with meows so I would go feed them. She loved the Nutro brand food I got them. Mostly I would get dry food, but she also loved the wet gravy flavors. She would often try to check out our people food if we popped open a can, but often wouldn't eat anything if we actually offered it to her. She loved to jump onto my bed after the sheets were freshly washed. She would wait until I would fold back the sheet and then run along the small folded back part. That was so cute. Luka would also pick her up and carry her around trying to hunt for flies or sometimes spiders high up on the wall. She was a great hunter!
August 16th I was working from home in the living room and Moji was sitting on the floor by my feet. I hear this weird noise, and I look to her, and she is crouched low to the ground and it seems almost like she's trying to cough up a furball, but nothing is coming. I freaked out thinking she was having an asthma attack or something and headed out to find somewhere to take her. Her normal vet was closed, a different vet was closed for lunch, some place else wasn't open, and then finally I was directed by someone over the phone to VGA in Fountain Valley. I rushed her over there, thinking still that maybe she had asthma.
I'm waiting in the lobby to find out what's going on when it hits me that there might be something worse going on. The doctor calls me, because of COVID, rather than speaking to me face-to-face. She tells me Moji is in heart failure, that she was born with a heart disease, and has a pretty loud heart murmur. I was completely shocked. After going through her history, it was determined that when I took her to the vet on August 14th because of her skin irritation from fleas (which just came back after being gone for so long...), her vet gave her a steroid shot. He had done it once before for her and it seemed okay. This time - it put her into heart failure. I was so distraught. She had to stay at the hospital for two days on oxygen and getting tests done.
Looking back, there was a time or two when we would be playing with the cats with Da Bird or some teaser toy and she would cut her play short and then lie down. There was also a time or two after hard play where she made some odd pant. I thought it was okay because she stopped quickly each time, and figured maybe it was just an asthma? She always had sensitive skin so I thought that made sense for her to have, too. She had a swollen bottom lip twice probably from rubbing up on plastic, so it all just seemed like sensitivities. No. HCM, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. She was born with it, and the injected steroid brought it all to light.
Luka was in the hospital for three weeks very soon after, so unfortunately I didn't get to be with her much at that time, but Madison and Cameron would hang out and make sure they were all okay. She started her Lasix and Clopiderol. And was good until after D&D on Sunday, October 24th when she went into heart failure again. We rushed her to the hospital and they got her stable over the next day and a half. Brought her home, upped her medication.
Starting on November 1st, I started to grow concerned again. Her breathing was so great when she came home, but then it started getting quick. She also started lying on top of me whenever she could. I loved being close to her, but it worried me. I think I read her pretty well. I knew it was coming. We upped her doses of Lasix but on Tuesday night, her labored breathing never really went down. I slept with her on my stomach, with her dozing off when possible. Her breathing would slow down then, but if she woke and started moving around, it would be too fast again.
Today, November 3rd, I woke to her at 6 AM still on my chest with jagged, liquidy breathing. I knew then I couldn't delay. I had thought about euthanasia at home but never really really looked into but I knew I couldn't just let her suffer in this way. I rushed her to the hospital again, where they let me know that she had liquid in her lungs again and was in heart failure. She started little meows when we got there, and her liquid breathing sound was gone... she was always trying her hardest to be okay. I opened her carrier to pet her more, and continued to do so until they had to take her away from me. The doctor said what we were already thinking, that her quality of life if we continue getting her out of heart failure just to go back in a week later was not looking good... It was so hard to agree to, but I didn't want my baby to have to go through this anymore, especially when she had only been in failure a little over a week before. The doctor told me she was also taking double the normal recommended dose for cats with HCM. I called Luka to confirm, and then let the doctor know that we would be putting her to sleep. I drove home, big ugly crying the whole way, and picked up Luka and Evelyn. We sat in the lobby for a little bit, then looked at a printed packet of cremation offerings. Evelyn picked out something, and then the took us back into Exam Room 10 to wait for her. The room was prepared for those saying goodbye to their pets, with a nice plaque about leaving pawprints forever in your heart, with fake candles lit up. A thin paper book on loss sat on the table with bent corners. We all sat on this comfy bench, waiting for them to bring her in to us to say goodbye.
They brought her in wrapped like a burrito in a dark blue blanket, with an IV starter already in her arm. She didn't really look at me too much, but instead was looking all around the room, like she wanted to escape. Evelyn held her for a bit, crying and petting her. I took pictures and then took her back. She actually got out of the burrito blanket and then Luka picked her up and put her back in my arms in the blanket. This set off her heavy nose breathing, and after more kisses, we pressed the button to notify staff that it was time. She put her left paw into my left arm, the claws anchored in to me tight through my cardigan. I wanted so much more time for her, but her disease reminded us of why we were on an undesired timeline... Moji had so much more living to do, but her heart just couldn't take it.
The doctor came in and explained the process to us. I am so glad I got to hold my baby Moj, giving her kisses, petting the back of her head, telling her I love her, holding her as the doctor gave her the injection of the sedative. I couldn't see her face much since I was holding her in my arms. Luka tells me she was just looking off, not at anyone. The doctor waited and then let us know she would give her the injection to stop her heart. I held my baby as she her heart slowed finally, finally, at rest. The doctor used a stethoscope to confirm she had no heart beat, and then let us spend time with her afterwards. I kissed her more, more pets, more crying as I held her and hugged her limp body. She was warm but starting to cool. Her eyes were open and lifeless. And that is how my baby went.
It's now the next day, and I need to be up in a few hours to keep on living while my baby is no longer here. I am going to try to go lie down, maybe, if Luka will go with me. I love you so much, Moji. Always and forever and forever.
February 1, 2016 - November 3, 2021
My little chaton, my sweet darling Moji, my best friend. Let me share her life story.
My brother had a friend on Facebook offering up kittens, as their cat just had a bunch of babies. After checking with my boyfriend, I told my brother to let his friend know that we wanted one! I got prepared by purchasing food and water dishes (which are still in use to this day!), a litter box, scratching post, teaser toy, and ball, and set up my room - so excited! Before I went to go pick her up, my brother's friend replied to let me know that they actually gave away all the kittens and there were none left. I was disappointed. But then, a little while later, they let me know that they actually found one more kitten they didn't know they still had, the runt of the group, under a bed. I was so delighted, and went over with my friend Kailei to pick up the kitten.
I don't remember much about picking her up from her first owners - it was a quick exchange. I remember a bunch of shoes by the front door. I remember that while we were in the car with Moji, I saw who had to be her parents - two adult cats who were long, white, and graceful running outside and out of sight. I took a few pictures of Moji with Kailei.
Moji was covered in fleas really bad, which concerned us since she was so young. We went and got a flea shampoo to bathe her, brought her home, and Kailei, more experienced with animals, gave her a bath in our bathroom sink. I remember how infested she was with fleas, and her little wonky/winky right eye that she had for the rest of her life.
I was so excited to watch you play, Moji. She was a little skittish but still played. She at first, though, would hide under our bed. It was where her old owners found her, so we guessed it was where she felt safest. She liked the smooth surface of the mirror and always would love to run her two front paws over smooth surfaces, like our mirror or trash can or laundry basket. She also loved hiding in bags from the very beginning. When she was small enough, she would jump on top of my books in my bookshelf. When she got older, she would jump up on the very top of my bookshelf! I loved her so much immediately. Look how cute... awake one moment and asleep the next.
I loved taking care of you and watching you grow. I remember counting down the minutes and being so anxious to leave work because I was so eager to get home to you and see how you had been and pet and love you! Even after a few years, I recall still wanting to get the heck home so I could be with you, Moji.
By the way, her name, Mojo Jojo, came about by way of young baby Evelyn. She had three rats: Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. So, we had a cat now, and she had to be the foe of the Power Puff Girls, except she didn't really mind the rats that much at all.
Moji would sleep with us and often would curl up in my lap when she was younger. She had litter box troubles pretty much her whole life. She wouldn't use it often to pee or poo fairly often... if she could get away uncaught, she would go on the floor instead along a wall. I never got angry at her, because I knew she had a rough start with the other family. I would sometimes catch her while she was going on the floor...she often wouldn't stop once she started. I would sometimes even pick her up and try to put her in her litter box -- poop or pee trailing behind us. I could never get mad at her. I like never got mad at her. I just couldn't. She was too precious, she was my baby. She liked to stay near me as soon as she warmed up to us, which was pretty quick -- just the first day or so was she staying more under our bed. She would sit on my laptop whenever given a chance, and liked to sit next to my desktop, too, often right in front of the monitor. She liked to jump up on counters -- she was a great jumper! She was always super graceful and practically floated up so effortlessly. She always amazed me with her jumps. She also was fast! She was always running from room to room, a white blur. I loved when she would do a little hop before launching into a run. Moji was also very talkative! She had all sorts of different meows and chirps as greetings, wanting attention, or just chatting. I loved her super expressive face, too. You could tell when she was happy or relaxed or thinking hard. She had big lovely eyes and her face just seemed to change with her moods. She would hang out with me in the bathroom so often I just started leaving the door cracked ajar always. She would plop down right at my feet. She was my girl.
She would sometimes run in a circle chasing her tail. She liked sitting in spaces that were too small for her, including tiny boxes or bags. She would fall asleep on the window sill when she was older and sometimes fall off and that would make me sad. She often would sit in my window in my bedroom, and for a long time, could often be found there. I made up songs for her all of the time. Moji-in-the-window is one of them! I could see her in the window as I drove into my parking spot and it would make me smile. Sometimes when taking out trash, I'd stop outside my window to say hi to her. She found out when she was a bit older that she loved being outside. In her final weeks, we would have to rush in or out of the house because she would time it and pay attention to the door and rush out. She would lick the sidewalk and roll around in the sunlight. She loved to try to eat plants. I had gotten her quite a few cat grasses because of her love for eating plants. On one of her final days, I let her walk wherever she wanted to, and we spent nearly an hour outside just exploring. She went the furthest she had ever been.
She was big sis to our other cat that we got a few months after her, Trixie. Moji would often groom Trixie. They would play together and sometimes play fight and then it would be more real fighting, but nothing serious. Usually just hissing. Trixie was always more aggro than Moji, but Moji could pin her also. I loved when they would sleep right next to each other. Moji was a good big sister for sure!
She liked to hang out in the shower/bath tub. She would run and then like a race horse, hop over the side of the tub and then chill in there. She would sometimes surprise me after a shower and when I opened the shower door, she would be outside waiting for me. She was always interested in water. She actually stopped drinking from her cat water fountain at some time and drank from our drinking water faucet at the sink. Luka didn't like it but I didn't care. I thought it was super cute. Earlier, she would drink from the fountain too, but pretty much after her first heart failure, she drank exclusively from our faucet. She would also often hang out on the back of the toilet, notably when she wasn't feeling well. The whole day before her first heart failure, she stayed on the back of our toilet tank and didn't move. Poor girl.
I tried my best to be a good mom. I did the things. I got the pet insurance through work. I took her to the vet for all of her shots and regular appointments. I got her microchipped in case she got lost. I got her spayed. And I loved the shit out of her. She was my long cat! I loved how she would stretch and seemed insanely long. I think she was a Turkish Van mix... the vet had her down as an American shorthair but she definitely had some Turkish Van in her!
She often slept curled up in a ball, but she would fall asleep anywhere in the house. She liked to chill in obscure places, and if it was soft or comfy, she for sure would try to sleep on it. She would often want to be petted, and would arch her back for me. She grew to enjoy being pet, when at first she was more unsure and skittish. She liked being pet on her back and by her tail, but also liked for me to rub under her cheeks and also the top of her head. Sometimes if you pet her too much, she would get worked up and then nip at you to tell you that was enough. If I was off on their feeding schedule, she would sometimes wake me up with meows so I would go feed them. She loved the Nutro brand food I got them. Mostly I would get dry food, but she also loved the wet gravy flavors. She would often try to check out our people food if we popped open a can, but often wouldn't eat anything if we actually offered it to her. She loved to jump onto my bed after the sheets were freshly washed. She would wait until I would fold back the sheet and then run along the small folded back part. That was so cute. Luka would also pick her up and carry her around trying to hunt for flies or sometimes spiders high up on the wall. She was a great hunter!
August 16th I was working from home in the living room and Moji was sitting on the floor by my feet. I hear this weird noise, and I look to her, and she is crouched low to the ground and it seems almost like she's trying to cough up a furball, but nothing is coming. I freaked out thinking she was having an asthma attack or something and headed out to find somewhere to take her. Her normal vet was closed, a different vet was closed for lunch, some place else wasn't open, and then finally I was directed by someone over the phone to VGA in Fountain Valley. I rushed her over there, thinking still that maybe she had asthma.
I'm waiting in the lobby to find out what's going on when it hits me that there might be something worse going on. The doctor calls me, because of COVID, rather than speaking to me face-to-face. She tells me Moji is in heart failure, that she was born with a heart disease, and has a pretty loud heart murmur. I was completely shocked. After going through her history, it was determined that when I took her to the vet on August 14th because of her skin irritation from fleas (which just came back after being gone for so long...), her vet gave her a steroid shot. He had done it once before for her and it seemed okay. This time - it put her into heart failure. I was so distraught. She had to stay at the hospital for two days on oxygen and getting tests done.
Looking back, there was a time or two when we would be playing with the cats with Da Bird or some teaser toy and she would cut her play short and then lie down. There was also a time or two after hard play where she made some odd pant. I thought it was okay because she stopped quickly each time, and figured maybe it was just an asthma? She always had sensitive skin so I thought that made sense for her to have, too. She had a swollen bottom lip twice probably from rubbing up on plastic, so it all just seemed like sensitivities. No. HCM, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. She was born with it, and the injected steroid brought it all to light.
Luka was in the hospital for three weeks very soon after, so unfortunately I didn't get to be with her much at that time, but Madison and Cameron would hang out and make sure they were all okay. She started her Lasix and Clopiderol. And was good until after D&D on Sunday, October 24th when she went into heart failure again. We rushed her to the hospital and they got her stable over the next day and a half. Brought her home, upped her medication.
Starting on November 1st, I started to grow concerned again. Her breathing was so great when she came home, but then it started getting quick. She also started lying on top of me whenever she could. I loved being close to her, but it worried me. I think I read her pretty well. I knew it was coming. We upped her doses of Lasix but on Tuesday night, her labored breathing never really went down. I slept with her on my stomach, with her dozing off when possible. Her breathing would slow down then, but if she woke and started moving around, it would be too fast again.
Today, November 3rd, I woke to her at 6 AM still on my chest with jagged, liquidy breathing. I knew then I couldn't delay. I had thought about euthanasia at home but never really really looked into but I knew I couldn't just let her suffer in this way. I rushed her to the hospital again, where they let me know that she had liquid in her lungs again and was in heart failure. She started little meows when we got there, and her liquid breathing sound was gone... she was always trying her hardest to be okay. I opened her carrier to pet her more, and continued to do so until they had to take her away from me. The doctor said what we were already thinking, that her quality of life if we continue getting her out of heart failure just to go back in a week later was not looking good... It was so hard to agree to, but I didn't want my baby to have to go through this anymore, especially when she had only been in failure a little over a week before. The doctor told me she was also taking double the normal recommended dose for cats with HCM. I called Luka to confirm, and then let the doctor know that we would be putting her to sleep. I drove home, big ugly crying the whole way, and picked up Luka and Evelyn. We sat in the lobby for a little bit, then looked at a printed packet of cremation offerings. Evelyn picked out something, and then the took us back into Exam Room 10 to wait for her. The room was prepared for those saying goodbye to their pets, with a nice plaque about leaving pawprints forever in your heart, with fake candles lit up. A thin paper book on loss sat on the table with bent corners. We all sat on this comfy bench, waiting for them to bring her in to us to say goodbye.
They brought her in wrapped like a burrito in a dark blue blanket, with an IV starter already in her arm. She didn't really look at me too much, but instead was looking all around the room, like she wanted to escape. Evelyn held her for a bit, crying and petting her. I took pictures and then took her back. She actually got out of the burrito blanket and then Luka picked her up and put her back in my arms in the blanket. This set off her heavy nose breathing, and after more kisses, we pressed the button to notify staff that it was time. She put her left paw into my left arm, the claws anchored in to me tight through my cardigan. I wanted so much more time for her, but her disease reminded us of why we were on an undesired timeline... Moji had so much more living to do, but her heart just couldn't take it.
The doctor came in and explained the process to us. I am so glad I got to hold my baby Moj, giving her kisses, petting the back of her head, telling her I love her, holding her as the doctor gave her the injection of the sedative. I couldn't see her face much since I was holding her in my arms. Luka tells me she was just looking off, not at anyone. The doctor waited and then let us know she would give her the injection to stop her heart. I held my baby as she her heart slowed finally, finally, at rest. The doctor used a stethoscope to confirm she had no heart beat, and then let us spend time with her afterwards. I kissed her more, more pets, more crying as I held her and hugged her limp body. She was warm but starting to cool. Her eyes were open and lifeless. And that is how my baby went.
It's now the next day, and I need to be up in a few hours to keep on living while my baby is no longer here. I am going to try to go lie down, maybe, if Luka will go with me. I love you so much, Moji. Always and forever and forever.
