On Thursday morning we said goodbye to Oz, the cat we had for 10 years. I’ve been thinking about writing this post ever since, and haven’t been sure I’d be able to compose the words correctly. But I’m going to try now.
We adopted Oz accidentally. I’m a huge animal lover, and if it were up to me, we’d probably have 15 pets. One day in 2014, Russ and I went to PetSmart to get food for Gus, the dog we had at the time. There was a cat adoption event going on at that store by a cat shelter called Love-A-Stray. I knew we were in trouble as soon as I saw that the cats were there. I said to Russ, “Let’s go look at the cats.” He had a look in his eye like, “oh crap, what are we getting into?”
We walked over to where the cats were, and an older lady (probably in her 70’s) was wearing the Love-A-Stray t-shirt, except she had tie-dyed hers. She walked right up to us and said, “I have the perfect cat for you, I can tell by your auras.” Russ’s eyes have never rolled as hard as they did in that moment, but I said, “Russ! She has the perfect cat for us!” The woman walked us past several other cats over to a crate that had Oz (then named “Speck” for the orange spot on his face) and said, “here he is.” She opened the crate and this sweet 7-month-old little kitty immediately started purring and rubbing his face against my hand. It was over in that moment, I knew he was coming home with us. Poor Russ knew it too.
The volunteer explained that Oz and his sister were incredibly close and that they had been hoping to adopt the two of them out together, but that his sister was adopted the previous day. I felt so bad that he had been separated from his companion. I was ready to go, and then Russ said to the volunteer, “We have a dog. Is he good with dogs?” She responded, “Yes, he’s amazing with dogs.” I squealed and said, “Did you hear that?! He’s amazing with dogs!!” Russ - ever the wise one - turned to the volunteer and said, “Has he ever met a dog?” The hippie lady sort of sighed and said, “Well, no, but I can tell from his energy that he would be amazing with dogs!” It didn’t matter to me at that point - Oz was coming home with us.
We filled out the paperwork and bought cat food, kitty litter, and a litter box, and off we went. I read online that it was best to keep a new cat separated from other animals at first so that they could learn to adjust. For the first day we had him, Oz hid under the futon we had upstairs, but he pretty quickly started venturing out, and he met Gus.
Gus was an old soul, and sort of had the vibe of a curmudgeonly old man. He was an incredible dog, and Oz pretty quickly attached himself to Gus, probably because Oz had been so close to his sister. They often cuddled with each other, mostly at Oz’s prompting. Oz was definitely a bigger fan of Gus than Gus was of Oz, but they ended up being really good buddies. When Gus was younger, he and Oz would wrestle. It was insane that this cat was so patient with our dog - never hissed, never scratched, never swiped at Gus, and was always game for some playing. As Gus got older, the wrestling stopped, but the cuddling didn’t. If Gus was ever cuddling with me, Oz always wanted in, and the three of us often cuddled together.
Oz could have been a therapy animal. He seemed to always know when I needed him around. When I was in the worst times of my depression, Oz would come and find me and sit next to me, or lay in bed with me, and purr in my face. I think most people think of cats as distant and anti-social, and Oz was the opposite. He always wanted to be around us, and he loved spending time with people.
Oz was one of those cats that people say are more like a dog than a cat. He loved to have his belly scratched, and would often flop onto his back so that you could pet his belly. A lot of cats will let you do that for a minute before they attack your hand, but Oz would let you do it forever if you wanted. Oz never bit or scratched anyone on purpose. He would sometimes scratch us if we were trying to get him in his crate to go to the vet, but only because he would cling to our arms to avoid the crate, not as an actual scratch out of aggression.
Oz loved kids. One of my best friends - Bethany - came to visit several years ago and brought her then-toddler Silas. Silas wasn’t even talking yet, but when he met Oz he started crawling around and trying to talk to Oz. Oz was so patient with Silas, and the longer the visit went on, the more accurate Silas’s cat sounds became. Oz was honestly friendlier with kids and babies than Gus was, and it was just one of those things that made him a remarkable cat.
Oz loved beer. I don’t know how he discovered it, but one day I left an open can or bottle of beer on the counter and Oz tried licking the lip. He was immediately hooked, and purred his little head off, and from that day on would go for anyone’s beer if they sat it down. I once read that there are some similarities between beer and catnip, so it makes some sense, but I always thought it was really funny.
After Gus passed in November of 2021, Oz was an only pet for about a month. He clearly missed Gus, and was pretty clingy, although I honestly didn’t mind. We ended up adopting a dog we named Doc from the Erie County (NY) SPCA, and Oz had a new friend.
Doc has some serious puppy energy, even though he’s 2 and a half now. He was 5 months old when we got him, and he immediately wanted to play with Oz. For Oz, there was no warm-up period, and he right away started playing with his new friend. The wrestling he did with Gus became wrestling with Doc, and every time anybody who didn’t live here saw it, they thought it was amazing that our cat would play so hard with our rambunctious dog. Oz didn’t attach to Doc the way he did with Gus, but he definitely loved Doc, and tolerated him a lot more than almost any other cat would.
Oz started having some health stuff go on, and we took him to the vet. In March of 2023, the vet told us Oz was experiencing kidney failure. They said that they really didn’t know how long he had left, and that things could either go pretty slowly, or he could deteriorate quickly. Oz was never a big eater, so he was always pretty light-weight, but the vet wanted to do regular blood tests and weight checks on him to monitor how he was doing.
Oz was TERRIFIED of the vet. I thought Gus was scared of the vet until we had to start taking Oz regularly. Oz would often “decline” blood draws, meaning he would squirm and try to run and twitch and move so much that the vets couldn’t draw blood. This meant rescheduling a lot of vet appointments. It also meant that, every time we took the crate out to take him to the vet, Oz would hide in as unreachable a place as he could. I hated taking him to the vet.
On Monday of this past week, Russ took Oz for another blood draw and weight check. The vet’s office called on Tuesday and said that Oz had dropped from 8lbs to 5lbs in 3 months. They also said that his blood was showing some pretty obvious signs of cancer. They said we could do X-rays and an ultrasound (at a ridiculously exorbitant cost), but that even if they identified what was going on, it would maybe only buy us a couple months.
I am very much of the opinion that I do not want to let an animal suffer just because I can’t let go. I want my last memories with my pets to be of happiness and good times. It was pretty clear from our conversation with the vet that we didn’t have any times like that left with Oz and that now was the time to act, either by trying some aggressive treatments to buy us a few months, or to say goodbye.
Because Gus was so afraid of the vet, when it came time to put him down, a friend and coworker who is a massive animal lover recommended an at-home pet euthanasia vet called A Gentle Farewell. When we put Gus down, an incredibly compassionate and kind vet came to our house and allowed us to do it in our home. It was so peaceful and beautiful. So I knew we wanted to do the same with Oz this time. I called A Gentle Farewell on Tuesday night, and we scheduled for them to come to the house Thursday morning. We asked if we should bring Doc to daycare on Thursday, and they said that he should be home, because animals can understand death and he would likely be more at peace with seeing Oz pass than he would be if he came home and Oz wasn’t here anymore.
I mentioned that Oz wasn’t a big eater, but he loved tuna. He hadn’t been able to eat tuna because he had to be on special kidney-care food, so I went out and bought two cans on Wednesday, and he was thrilled to chow down on it Wednesday night.
When the vet came on Thursday, she was incredibly kind and let us take our time with Oz. We told her all of the stories I mentioned in this post, and showed her pictures of Gus and Oz. When the time came, she explained that Oz eating food might distract him while she administered the first medication, which would make him fall asleep before the lethal injection. So we brought out the tuna again, and while he was chowing down, the vet administered the sleepy medicine. Oz didn’t love that, but quickly returned to his bowl of tuna, purring away. He fell asleep with his face in the bowl of tuna, which is sort of hilarious and is an epic way to go. Russ and I have both said that we are so happy that his last earthly moments were doing his favorite things - eating tuna and getting pet by us.
As it had been with Gus, the process was extremely sad and extremely peaceful. If you ever have to put a pet down and can afford it, I really recommend using an at-home service. I don’t know how someone could do that job full-time, but God bless them for the incredible, compassionate work they do. Doc said goodbye too, and we arranged to get Oz’s ashes delivered to us.
I already miss Oz so much. He was just an incredible pet, one of those special pets that you don’t know how you got so lucky to have in your life. The vet who came on Thursday said that we may someday adopt another cat, but we would never find one as incredible as Oz. I think everyone who met Oz knew that he was a very special cat. He really helped me be strong on my darkest days. He was a caretaker. He was of course quirky, as all cats are, but those quirks were so lovable. I don’t know if we’ll ever get another cat, because I really think we were incredibly spoiled with Oz and no other cat could live up to his legacy. Of course, with my love of animals, I’d be surprised if we stayed a one-pet home forever, but I really do think we’d be much more likely to get another dog than another cat. I feel so blessed that Oz chose us to spend his life with, and I will always be grateful for the hippie at PetSmart who read our auras and matched us with the greatest cat that ever lived.