callie

Greg is on his way to the vet right now to put our little Callie down. She is sick. She has lost weight, is often throwing up and eating non food items. In the last few weeks she walks with bent hind legs. She was this feisty little sh*t when we first got her. We have a 18 lb cat named Max who is a total grump and from day one our little 10 lb Callie picked on him like nothing else.

Here she is when we first got her. They actually cuddled when she was a baby... but Max quickly got over that as she grew.

Here she is at 1 year old. Such a cuddly little kitty. She and Greg had a very special bond. I think of Callie as "his" cat in a way. She was always cuddling with Greg.

Here are the 3 of them. An adult Callie with Max and Mae. The fact that they were even all sitting on a couch together at once and long enough for me to take a picture is amazing!
Please don't judge on our decision to put her down. It was not a decision we made lightly. The fact is we are losing our home. We are in no situation to spend $190 at the vet on preliminary blood work and screening alone. Then there would likely be monthly medication fees, etc. We simply cannot afford it. We have children to feed and an apartment down payment to save up for... among the flower girl dress we need to buy for Ellie, the car seat we just had to buy for Cooper, the muffler we need to buy for our second car, etc.

Callie had a hard life from the get go. Her mom died days after birth. She was a farm cat who was hit by a car. Her kittens had no nourishing milk from her. They were fed solid watered down cat food from the beginning. Not a good start to life.

We are just happy that we gave her almost 6 years of a warm loving home, where she was safe and comfortable, always fed and cuddled.

We will miss you Callie.

p.s. As I cried last night and explained to Ellie what was going to happen with Callie, my little (old souled) 4 year old pats me on the leg and says, "I know you love Callie Momma. If the vet can't fix her then she'll just be in heaven with Grandma Shirley." So matter of fact. I love her.

**Edited to add**
Greg just called. He is on his way home. We used a new vet for this situation and he said she was wonderful which is SO nice. A couple years ago we had to put another pet down and the vet who did that gave us heck for it. Made us feel guilty. But Bailey had a temperment problem and pee'd all over. I will not have cat piss in my house (except in the litter box.) Anyway... this vet asked Greg if she could do a quick examination of Callie. He said yes. After it she told Greg that Callie was definitely very sick. That she could only feel one kidney. That whatever was wrong with her would have cost quite a bit of money to figure out and fix. So that we were likely making the best decision for our finances and for Callie's well being as she was suffering. She also gave us a clay paw print of Callie's foot to bake in the oven. Now how neat is that? Makes me cry, but I'm just so happy that she's not hurting anymore.