On Monday, we had to say good bye to our first "baby" Piko. It was very sad to let go of him, but it was the right thing to do. He wasn't eating, drinking or enjoying life anymore. He had end-stage kidney disease and fought the good fight. At the beginning of the year, his bloodwork indicated that his disease was so progressed, he would probably not be eating and instead, throwing up. Not my Piko! He was one tough dude! We were given an optimistic 4 month time frame, and he stretched it to 7.5 months! What a guy! Almost til the very end, he was his normal self - spunky, affectionate, and a little crazy in the head. We tried to make the most of his final days, feeding him cold cut chicken that he used to get busted for trying to sneak off Evan's lunch plate and letting him hang out in the sunshine outside. He lived the best life and we couldn't have asked for a better kitty!
Thinking back on his zany life, I can't help but feel fortunate - they say cats have 9 lives... well, this one got 20! I still remember going to the Humane Society and meeting him for the fist time. He was a tiny kitten and Tommy instantly fell in love with the little brown tabby snuggled on his lap. I was a little hesitant, but we did the paperwork and arranged to pick him up the next day. Tommy couldn't come, so our friend Hoku took me back to the animal shelter. I was just telling him how we found this really calm kitten that slept on Tommy's lap. I walked into the room where Piko was being held and he was so excited to see me that he climbed the bars of his cage. Scaled it like Spiderman! We got such a giggle since I had just told Hoku that we were getting a "calm" cat. We even wondered if it was the same cat from yesterday!
As a young cat, we found out from the vet that something was going on with his gums. They were raw and inflamed. Turns out, his gums were allergic to the enamel on his teeth. Say what?! How can that be? The best thing to do was to remove most of his teeth and the gums would settle down. In Piko went for a full removal of all teeth except for the 4 canines and those teeny tiny teeth in the front.
Piko was a relatively normal kitten, but somewhere along the way, he got a little neurotic. Around the same time, 2 things happened that would forever change Piko. Our friend Charlie accidentally stepped on his tail (which Piko held a very long grudge over. He did not like Charlie after that.) And we brought home a foster kitten to take care of overnight. Piko did not like that at all. He thought he was being replaced and withdrew quite a bit. He remained a loving cat to us, but from then, he hid whenever people came over.
Some of his other neurotic tendencies: He loved to rub his face in plastic bags. He liked to eat hair and string. This leads to another near death experience. We took Evan to Disneyland when he turned 2. When we returned from our trip, we found Piko looking ill and there was vomit everywhere. Cat sitter did not realize something was wrong (she was never used again, obviously). Tommy took him to the emergency room that night and they had to operate on Piko - they removed a yard of thread that he had injested. If our trip was a day longer, he would probably not have made it.
My favorite memories of Piko:
As a kitten he would perch on Tommy's shoulder and lick melted cheese out of the can. We called him Piko Parrot.
When he wanted to eat, he would do the "Shakey Tail Stomp". He would stand in front of us, stomp his back paws and his tail would quiver. It was so cute.
When the kids were babies, I hated hearing them cry in the middle of the night ("Just go to sleep!!!!") I would come back to our room and rest my head on Piko. He would purr and the sound would drown out the crying for a little bit and I'd get so much comfort out of such a simple thing.
The cats were not allowed outside ever. One time, Piko got out. He snuck out the back door and stepped onto the pavement. You could tell he immediately regretted his decision cause he started stepping very gingerly - as if the rough pavement was hurting his tender indoor-cat paws.
He loved his snackies. When Tommy was working at the cat hospital, he brought home a bag of food (Royal Canin Adult dry) and said, "They're calling this Kitty Crack because all cats love it." We tried it out, and yup, our kitties loved it too. We called them snackies and gave it sparingly. Sometimes, Poki would hide away and we could not find her. She would not come out when you called her name, so the only thing that would draw her out was to shake the bag of snackies. She would come running and we would give her a little. Piko would of course get some too. So whenever I would start looking for Poki, Piko would come along and hound me, knowing that he would be getting snackies soon.
He loved getting groomed at home. We had a special brush called the Zoom Groom. He perked up when he saw me holding it. He would lie down and purr and make biscuits with his paws - he was in heaven! It must have felt so good for him!
Piko was one special dude. His 13.5 years with us was filled with lots of love and purrs.
