{"id":2384,"date":"2014-10-10T11:19:07","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T11:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aercmn.com\/?p=2384"},"modified":"2014-10-10T11:19:07","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T11:19:07","slug":"bye-bye-mickey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/bye-bye-mickey\/","title":{"rendered":"Bye Bye, Mickey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So today was the day. We euthanized Mickey. It came so suddenly, even though I saw it coming months ago. Last night, Mickey couldn\u2019t settle down. He wouldn\u2019t sit on his blanket in front of the\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2385 alignright\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_0523-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/>heat register, but wandered slowly around the house, stopping to stare at nothing on the wall, like a wind-up toy that had wound down. Every once in a while he would meow, but his characteristic bossy meow had become more of a low moan. He wanted to go\u2014of this much I was sure. In fact, part of his mind had already left. He just didn\u2019t know how to get the rest of himself there.<\/p>\n<p>I brought him into AERC with me this morning. Our team, as usual, was amazing.\u00a0Kara\u00a0expressed her sympathies when I called on the phone; I passed Mickey into the competent hands of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/home\/our-patients\/our-charitable-fund\/our-veterinary-team\/kristen\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Kristen<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"\/blog\/home\/our-patients\/our-charitable-fund\/our-veterinary-team\/bryan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bryan<\/a>\u00a0when I arrived. They placed a catheter in his tiny, dried-up-old-kitty veins, and brought him to me to hold, wrapped in a fleece blanket.\u00a0Kristin\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"\/blog\/home\/our-patients\/our-charitable-fund\/our-veterinary-team\/karen-reynhout\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dr. Karen<\/a>\u00a0stayed with me.\u00a0Alisha got the clay paw ready for his little foot (missing one toe on one foot).<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2386 alignleft\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Mickey-foot-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I stroked Mickey\u2019s head and told him I loved him. I told him he was a good cat\u2014a great cat. I told him goodbye. Mickey purred as Dr. Karen injected the catheter in his leg with euthanasia solution. About halfway through, he suddenly sat upright, leaning forward, then relaxed back down, and he was gone. I like to think that was the moment his soul sat up and said, \u201cLet\u2019s go!\u201d It was the right time. It was a good death. It was everything we want for our pets: there was no suffering or fear, and Mickey was held closely by someone who loves him.<\/p>\n<p>There is a book we give to clients who euthanize their pets at our clinic. It\u2019s called\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.suzannyue.com\/book-reviews.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Snort\u2019s Special Gift<\/a>. The author,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.suzannyue.com\/about-the-author.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Suzann Yue<\/a>, is from Minnesota, and she writes beautifully of her daughter\u2019s relationship with their Boxer dog, Snort, and how much the young girl realizes she has learned from Snort after his passing.<\/p>\n<p>I learned a lot from Mickey. Mickey came into our house at 15 years of age; from him I learned it\u2019s never too late to adapt. He slid effortlessly into our already crowded three-cat, one-dog, two-children home and seemed grateful for the opportunity to do so; in this, I learned that sometimes getting along is more important than getting your way. And although he tolerated a lot and never complained, he always made sure his voice was heard at mealtimes, because some things are worth being loud about.<\/p>\n<p>My seven-year-old was fighting back the tears this morning when I told him it was time for us to help Mickey die. He loves his cats like nothing else. But his eyes brightened and he managed to pull on a smile anyway as he told me, \u201cWe\u2019ll see him again someday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I sure hope so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So today was the day. We euthanized Mickey. It came so suddenly, even though I saw it coming months ago. Last night, Mickey couldn\u2019t settle down. He wouldn\u2019t sit on his blanket in front of the\u00a0heat register, but wandered slowly around the house, stopping to stare at nothing on the wall, like a wind-up toy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bye Bye, Mickey | Animal Emergency &amp; Referal Center of Minnesota<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/bye-bye-mickey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bye Bye, Mickey | Animal Emergency &amp; Referal Center of Minnesota\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So today was the day. 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