Forest - Belly Up

16/04/2024

Today, April 16, would have been my sweet Forest’s 18th birthday.
I miss him every day.
He was almost 17 in this image, taken for Valentine’s Day last year.
I adopted him at the age of 4 months and made his birthday the same day as my grandmother’s birthday.
I lost my boy on January 26..

21/03/2024

Miss you sweet man.
Easter, last year.

03/03/2024

A coworker gave me this sticker window decal that looks like Forest
You place it on a window where sun comes through and it casts rainbows around the room
Today it is casting rainbows towards the bookshelf where his ashes are
The ashes of all my past pets are on that shelf

19/02/2024

Forest has been gone nearly 3 weeks
Buying a frame for one of his last photos to place in front of his urn on my bookshelf has me broken and crying
A photo
A frame
Finality
Real

I love you, my sweet son

15/02/2024

Artist David Stradal made another whimsical papier-mâché painted, three dimensional piece. This one is of my sweet Forest who passed away January 26.
It now hangs above my sink in the kitchen with a piece depicting Goose.
The larger piece depicting Sheba hangs in the kitchen too. I have shared it before. I’ll share again here.
If anyone would like a whimsical piece like this depicting a pet, please let me know here and I’ll connect you with David.
They are one-of-a-kind and beautiful.

13/02/2024

At home tonight I heard a gentle noise
It sounded like when I heard Forest downstairs drinking out of the dog bowl
He would drink often due to renal failure
I listened for him
I would hear his feet gently thump as he came upstairs to see me in the morning
I’d hear him meow at Sheba when she slept down there near him
I listened for him
Tonight that frequent drinking sound snuck in while the house was quiet
I cried
Memories sneak in. Sounds. Things seen.
I always listened for him

11/02/2024

On my refrigerator
This poem I was given by my vet office after Forest passed
It makes me cry
It is now on the frig with images of pets who I’ve had to let go

10/02/2024

This little cardinal themed glass and battery powered angel were given to me for Christmas. I put her inside of the glass to show the cardinals. Signs of angels.
This glows in my kitchen windowsill - across from where Forest slept in his favorite bed.
It helps me keep a light on for him.
He is deeply missed.

09/02/2024

Drawing of me and Forest now displayed at the top of my stairs, above images of him I’ve had sitting on the little ledge for years.
Thank you artist John Tylk

08/02/2024

Thank you to the Cat Writer’s Association for sending me this sympathy card for the loss of my boy. I am a member of the organization. Goose was inspecting the card.

07/02/2024

It all comes down to this.
Sobbing and my boy’s remains in a box.
Forest is back with me now.
He’ll be home with us.

07/02/2024

I received a call from my veterinarian’s office Tuesday while at work. They left a message.
Forest’s ashes are there for me to pick up.
I was at work.
I cried.
I will pick him up Thursday before I go to work. I’ll bring him home again.
I will break again.

04/02/2024

Miss you my sweet boy

01/02/2024

The drawing John Tylk did of me loving Forest a few months ago is framed now.
I will hang it this weekend.
The mat board is a brushed velvet, giving a soft feeling like the image.
The frame I had at home, natural wood.

29/01/2024

29/01/2024

I’ll never remove Forest’s bed from the kitchen. I look to that spot day and night and feel heavy. He chose that spot and the bed.

As he became arthritic, he couldn’t lie in it as comfortably, so I put towels and blankets around it, making the nest wider.
He would lie on the towels.
He knew.

I would protect him there from being stepped on.
He was at the center of all activity.

Now that he is gone, I removed all the towels from around the bed and washed all the bedding.
Just a towel and quilt are in the bed now.

The night he passed, I came downstairs and found Goose in his bed.
I reached down and touched her and cried.

This story I wrote about his bed in years past.
Please read it and enjoy.

Also, a few images of him in his bed.

https://www.wagthedoguk.com/2021/02/18/the-little-tart-centerpiece-in-my-kitchen/

26/01/2024

Nothing you love is lost. Not really. Things, people—they always go away, sooner or later. You can’t hold them, any more than you can hold moonlight. But if they’ve touched you, if they’re inside you, then they’re still yours. The only things you ever really have are the ones you hold inside your heart.
- Bruce Coville

Forest left today around 10 A.M.
I was lying over him and letting him know he is loved, forever.

He was on respiratory distress in the drive in. Fluid around his lungs.

One image here is our last ride today. He always felt safer on my lap.

Forest was adopted at 4 months of age.
He was found on the streets of Chicago, very sick.
He was an angel entering my life after I lost two senior cats just before meeting him. I was broken at the time and he entered my world

He was a fighter, comical and loved everyone and everything.
He posed for photos - many of which were in international calendars.
He was the subject of many pet related essays I wrote over the years.

He would have been 18 in April.

In March of last year he was diagnosed after an ultrasound.

Ultrasound Diagnosis was:

1) Dilated pancreatic duct. Duodenal plication. This is suggestive of pancreatitis.

2) Slightly thickened muscularis layer of small intestines. DDX = early small cell lymphoma; IBD.

3) Small nodules in spleen and liver. DDX = lymphoma; benign reactive nodules.

4) Chronic kidney disease is suspected, consistent with age of patient

I decided, along with discussion with my vet, to treat him palliatively - comfortable at home. He took prednisolone a couple times a week.

I read this online at the time

“Cats with lymphoma who are not treated with chemotherapy have an average survival time of 4 weeks once the diagnosis has been made. Cats with intestinal lymphoma who are treated with prednisone alone have a life expectancy of 60-90 days.”

Forest lived much longer. He lived to love me and others and be loved.

Forest lately showed signs of arthritis decreasing his mobility.
The final symptom that told me it was time, labored breathing and more fatigue.

I could not let him suffer. I feared he would die while I was not home.

I brought him to his doctor for a confirmation and chose to let him free of this vessel of a beautiful body he resided in.

I am lost.
I am empty.
I am broken.

Forever.

Forest Horatio Maxwell Fluffy Bottom.
My little Forie.
The pink nose I always kissed multiple times a day.
When his hearing faded I kept saying “I love you” directly into his ears.

He purred, knowing.

"There is a sacredness in tears.
They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief, and unspeakable love."
~ Rumi

14/01/2024

Good cold morning from Forest Horatio Maxwell Fluffy Bottom

23/12/2023

My story that ran on Catster.com years back about my sweet Forest. You see images when he was younger and playing with his mink tail

https://www.catster.com/lifestyle/hide-and-seek-with-your-cat/

Learn more about in this article written about the cat experts at Catster! Catster is your go to source for cat news and expert insights.

09/12/2023

My sweet boy
And his new Christmas gift toy … catnip
He likes lying on the big towel beside his bed

07/12/2023

My sweet old Forest
He likes lying beside his kitchen bed now so I put a towel there for more warmth
He’s still in the center of action.
Protected
Sheba makes me nervous hopping around him - I’m always trying to shield him
He loves her
She loves him
His arthritis is getting worse, so he likes to stretch out more
It aches my heart, but he’s declining
As you know, he has cancer
I make him comfortable and loved
I cry at times over knowing one day it will be the last day
I shower him with love
He’ll let me know when

27/10/2023

He’s the pumpkin to my pie… and the cutest pumpkin in the patch.

Happy Halloween from Forest, 17.5 years old.

17/10/2023

I woke to see him there in a nest of duckies 💕

16/10/2023

Another image of me and my boy, Forest

By David Stradal

16/10/2023

Thank you David Stradal for taking these images of my Forest and me. Forest is 17.5 and has cancer. He’s my sweet soul kitty. I know he is declining and yet hanging in there.

04/10/2023

Routine with the seasoned citizen, Forest.
Backyard exploration, then walk back to the door and inside.
Forest is now 17 years, 5 months old

15/08/2023

At first I checked for signs of breathing …
He’s so funny when he zonks out
Little old man
He sleeps so soundly