Posted 4/8/22
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, land crawlers, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” Genesis 1:24-26
Howdy all. 🙂 Kind of melancholy today at the Applegate house. Our senior cat, Silver, a cat in his late teens…quite nearly 20(!), had to be put down today. He lived with us at multiple homes and throughout our kids’ entire childhood. It was hard to see him decline, but, decline he did. So, to honor “Silvs”, as I was wont to call him, I present you…
Things You Can Learn About Dementia from his Life:
- Dying isn’t natural– Dying isn’t natural. It isn’t beautiful. It is ugly. We weren’t created to die. But sin entered in and everything went kerfritz. Animals turned from kind to savage. The world is broken. Watching dying hurts.
- Memories are strongly tied to emotion– I see pictures of my cat at varying times through my kids’ lives and, especially on hour one without Silver, it is emotional to think that that part of their lives is gone. Grief for lost humans is much harder yet.
- Silver was a protector– I have pictures somewhere of Silver sitting on the corner posts of our deck standing guard like a gargoyle next to our other previous cat Skipper (RIP). He (they) would watch for animals, some twice his size, to protect us from. He was great like that. There were times something would spook Silver and he would bail out, but the majority of the time he was on post. In dementia, we have protection too. Things like diet, exercise, protecting yourself from high blood pressure/blood sugar/stress/head injury/poor sleep habits, not smoking/over-drinking, and literally anything else that is good for your HEART (and thereby is good for the brain) does everything you can do to protect yourself from dementia. Studies show these things protect very well…perhaps half or more of the cases could be prevented (although 33-40% may be closer to reality). But, sadly, some, like mom, spook off the prevention. Mom smoked for a couple of decades, but stopped well before she developed the disease. The rest she did pretty darn well.
- The memories of the end shouldn’t change the memories of the life lived– Silver’s last month stunk. He lost a lot of weight and really struggled. We finally got him eating again, and he seemed to rally…then he stopped eating a few days ago and stopped being Silver. No greeting at the door. No playing the wink game. I could wink at him and he would wink back. He wasn’t mean, but he was not Silver. However, he WAS Silver for the other 17 or 18 years and those memories are what I want to cling to. Will we always remember his end? Yup. It was emotional and hard. However, we need to focus on the million fun times and the good stuff. 🙂
- Long illnesses are hard– I often read the obits in the paper. Maybe it is part of working with seniors, but I do it early and often. Many folks die of what is referred to in the obits as “after a long illness”. Silver had feline HIV…a long illness. He had many times when he would get sick and just about pass…then miraculously recover. It is hard to watch and be a part of. Twinkie, our Chihuahua, died via VW in front of our house. Boom…in an instant he was gone. That too is very hard to cope with. However, if I had to choose, I prefer the VW to the years of decline of dementia or even Silver’s last weeks and months.
- Thankful for lack of pain– Silver was very sick, but he didn’t seem to be in terrible pain yet. The goal of the end should be such. Mom cannot share her pain either if she has any. We are doing our very best to help her prevent pain…
- Gone but not forgotten– I’ll miss Silver. He was a good cat. I will never forget him. Maybe his challenges were training me for my mom’s soon passing? I am not sure, but I know I will never forget either…
#EndALZ
Update- Had a nice visit with mom Wednesday and will again today. 🙂 She is about the same. Just slowly fading away…
Thank you all for bearing my sadness with me in this post and the previous 744 posts. We are nearing 750. Amazing. Remember, if you subscribed, please look in your spam folder…you may find previous posts there. Mark them as safe so the computer world understands. 🙂
Here is my fundraiser link should you have some extra coin to contribute. I really want to make a difference for a cure.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/running-til-im-purple-ii
Thank you all and have a great weekend. 🙂
As always love prayers and respect.
Thank you very much. 🙂 Thank you for all you do.