“Daylight, see the dew on the sunflower
And a rose that is fading
Roses wither away
Like the sunflower, I yearn to turn my face to the dawn
I am waiting for the day” – Andrew Lloyd Weber (from Cats – 1981)
In March of 2020 we already had 3 cats and certainly weren’t looking for more. But when a woman posted on a neighborhood site that an emaciated cat was discovered and needed a home, we said if no one else stepped forward, we would take her in. The foster parent took her to the vet and nursed her back to decent health, and we soon had ourselves a 4th cat. They didn’t know how old she was. The picture below is from the video we saw. How could we say no?
Cora didn’t fit in too well with our other cats, who didn’t like the stranger invading their territory. We kept Cora in her own room, in the study, which she grew to love. We kept a baby gate at the doorway to the room. Cora could easily hop over it, as could the other cats, but it created enough of a barrier where she felt protected and had a little privacy. Eventually she would venture out and explore the house, but whenever she got nervous or felt insecure, she would run back to the comfort of her room.
It stayed that way for a few years. She seemed perfectly happy. But we did want to try to get the other cats to get closer to her, so we eventually put their cat food on the other side of gate so they could eat together, and we moved the gate out a bit so the cats could all go in and out without having to jump over the fence. Soon Cora started coming out more, and the other cats started spending more time in the study. I can’t say they all became best buddies, but they tolerated each other.
One day Cora discovered my favorite spot on the sofa in the family room. And it soon became her favorite spot as well. If the other cats came over, she would swat them away. Then she discovered my belly- what’s not to love? She enjoyed spending time sitting on me. Then she started rubbing her face all over my face and beard. She had an eye condition (feline herpes conjunctivitis) that made her eyes tear constantly, so she was always shaking or rubbing her head. She found that my face was a perfect spot to scratch her itchy little head. And for a long time, that became the daily routine- every morning, as soon as I sat down, she would find me and jump up for a head rub.
Her physical in June 2023 was fine. But at the end of January 2024, we noticed that she looked a little thinner. I tried weighing her with me on our bathroom scale, but it wasn’t accurate enough to get a definitive answer if she was losing weight. When we got back from a weekend in Philly for my eye surgery, she seemed to be a bit worse. We were trying to determine if she was eating, but it’s tough to tell when 4 cats all share the food. She suddenly seemed particularly lethargic. Eva tried to put out canned food to see if she would eat it, but she just sipped a little of the juice and then threw it right up. We knew then she had to get looked at. We were hoping maybe it was diabetes or a thyroid problem. Eva called the vet, who referred to her the Emergency Vet Hospital, and they diagnosed extensive cancer. At that point, she was just laying there sleeping, and not moving much. It all happened so fast. We were all with her when they put her down. She was comfortable and sitting on her favorite spot on my lap. I was glad we took her when we did- she was fading so fast I’m not sure if she would have made it through the night. I am comforted knowing she had a happy 4 years with us, after being so close to death when we adopted her. Rest in peace, sweet Cora.
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