Goodbye Valeria Victrix 2009-2024

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I thought she was seventeen, but checking the blog, she was only 15. I do have pictures of her as an adult, but they’re hard to find, and harder to tell apart from other two voids, now also departed.

Above, she was only three weeks old, and just recovering from the massive eye infection that caused her mom to bring her to the humans, and ended up with us bottle raising her.

Dan was always her favorite person in the world.

We unfortunately gave her to someone totally unworthy, but she came back to us in 2018 and lived with us till today.

She has been losing weight, but I thought it was her not eating while daddy was gone, but today she was hiding and visibly panting. I made an appointment, thinking they could give her pain meds, and she’d be fine.

But her heart was… funny, and the doctor said if we were going to try to save her she’d have to go into the emergency vet, and she expected her to die overnight anyway.

With broken hearts, we chose to let her go.

Yes, she could be feisty. And she was not a cat person. She loved humans and was very sweet to us, but she hated all cats. You see, she was raised by humans from her earliest memories.

I hope ever after, if we’re worthy, she’ll be there waiting for us.

I feel bereft and numb, and a little aching. I hope Havey stays with us through the end of the year. I’m not ready for another loss.

77 thoughts on “Goodbye Valeria Victrix 2009-2024”

  5. My daughter has a cat, Chocolate) for 17 years that she got as a very small kitten. That was her cat and everyone else came second or third. The final year Chocolate was failing and hurting and it finally came to pass that it was time to put her down. Was hard even for me whom the Chocolate usually tolerated at best.

    Been three years now and still she is missed.

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  14. Sorry Sarah. I know the pain of multiple goodbyes, having lost my two oldest boys this year along with a sweet little siamese bitty boy to FIP. If heaven doesn’t have them all there waiting on me, I’ll be a bit diappointed.

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  16. My daughter Sarah lost her cat, Clark, a few months ago. She was broken up about it. I know the pain losing a beloved pet brings. I’m sorry this has come to you.

    But it’s the bitter price we pay to have them in our lives. At best, we make their existence comfortable. But the loss is so painful.

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  17. I’m sorry for your loss, truly. Cats are special. Dogs and horses do the best they can, Lord love ’em and all honor to ’em, but cats are special.

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  19. I am so sorry Sarah. It is always hard to lose any animal. But harder to lose the baby you bottle raise. Also I think bottle raising them takes some of their longevity from them. Two of our 3 of our bottle babies were lost at around 15 to 16 years old (we lost Thump suddenly at age 5). Even another two weeks sets them up better. Eight weeks with mom is the best.

    So sorry you lost your baby. She was adorable as a kitten.

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  27. More hugs. Because at times like this you can never have enough. And if it is not too presumptuous, a couple for Dan also, by proxy?

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  28. I’m so very, very sorry for your loss. I have no doubts that you are more than worthy and she will be waiting for you in the place where no shadows fall. My deepest condolences to you and your family.  Ex animo, Lori Kissell 

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  29. The voids seem to climb into your soul even moreso than the other furry buggers and settle in comfortably. I rather like the way the Wiccans say something about waking up in the Summerlands with all the ones you’ve loved all young and healthy. Which may off put you a bit being Catholic but the thought is nice. May you meet up with her again demanding pets and treats one day but not too soon.

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  32. I read Kipling’s “The Cat Who Walked By Himself” last night and remembered all the cats who had sometimes sat by me.

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  34. I’m sorry for your loss. Dogs and cats, both in their different ways, are evidence of how much God loves us.

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  36. I was never a big cat person growing up. Always dogs, and when my step sister got a cat, the rest of us pretty much ignored her until she disappeared.

    Nowadays, working from home, I need my kitty. I can last a couple of weeks without one after losing one, but then I need to go find another furry friend.

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    1. The Rainbow Bridge to Asgard? Where the cats all go to Valhalla; fight against the forces of evil all day, usually by knocking objects off the counter onto their heads, and then play, party, eat, and sleep all night?

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  39. Sorry for you and Dan. Hugs.

    When we lost our dog Sara, we looked and found Kat-the-dog two weeks later. We still miss those that have crossed the Rainbow Bridge before us, but they’ll be waiting. Patiently, even.

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  40. Hugs.

    15 years ago we had to say goodbye to JP, a black lab that spent his last 4 years watching over the poor, hairless puppy that we brought home from the hospital. To this day, the Dragonette says she can still feel him watching her at night the way he did when he was alive.

    They never really leave us until it’s time for us to leave.

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  41. The big floofy Harley was a good boy. One day he couldn’t jump up in the bed. I picked him up and learned what his floof hid – he had lost a lot of weight. I knew what it meant, the wasting syndrome that killed his sister. He was already blind from cataracts. I comforted him, made sure he got all the snacks as the other kids, forgave him for the messes his failing body made and just made sure there was no pain. He got his treats until the last afternoon, and I knew it was time. He passed quietly that night. I’m crying again now.

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  43. Over a long life, I’ve had to say goodbye to friends in combat, parents, brothers, lovers . . . but furry family hurt just as much, and for ‘most as long. My experienced condolences, Sarah.

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  46. I’m very sorry for your loss. I’ve had furry friends all my life, and it just never gets any easier to lose them.

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  49. so sorry! We lost our Ton O’ Floof, George, last Spring; he was also 15.

    She has taken a bit of you, but has left a bit of herself; cherish!

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  51. Ave atque vale Valeria Victrix!! Condolences to you, Dan and the family. This is the part of being a cat companion/owner I dislike the most.

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  52. [[hugs]]

    It doesn’t matter how often you go through it, it never gets easier

    We lost our JiJi to hypertrophic cardiomegaly leading to congestive heart failure and kidney failure back in August, exactly one week after he turned three. He had only shown signs of illness for maybe a week. It’s probably genetic, so we now know to keep a close eye on his sisters.

    I’m a little surprised that Alice hasn’t come to visit, (she passed in 2020, but every now and then I feel a cat walk on the bed and lie against my ankles) but Angel usually sleeps next to my pillow now, so Alice probably figures I’m being taken care of. Of course Angel is a creaky 16+.

    Now I get to add in my father’s increasingly rapid decline. It seems to have been a crappy year for almost everyone. Can we please go back to 1/1/20 and start over?

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  54. I am so very very sorry for your loss. Know that she knew you loved her, and, as a Catholic,I relate this story:

    When i was living with my parents and sibs, I lost my girl Joey, who I’d raised from kittenhood. I was sitting talking to my Mom about it, and said, “If any of the Pets I’ve lost, dogs, cats, rabbits, rat, or ponies, if they aren’t there, I’m not going. (Meaning, in heaven, I was 16)

    To which my cousin, Fr. Norm, who was listening said, “Heaven is a place where you are happy. If you need you pets to be happy, they will be there.”

    So there is that.

    Terri

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  55. I am so very sorry for your loss, Sarah. It is always hard to lose a pet, but cats hurt especially deeply, at least for me.

    And WordPress seems to have eaten my first comment. WPDE!

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  63. According to Genesis, the Good Lord created the animals before He created Adam and Eve. It would seem, then, that he always meant for us to have animal companions.

    So I do believe that our earthly companions here will be waiting for us there. And what a glorious day that reunion will be!

    I am very sorry for the loss of your dear companion.

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  64. Today is Saint Crispin’s day, our battle comes in 11 days. Saint Elizabeth’s day as it happens Or Remember, remember the fifth of November if you’re a right footer.

    This story shall the good man teach his son;
    And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
    From this day to the ending of the world,
    But we in it shall be rememberèd—
    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
    Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
    This day shall gentle his condition;
    And gentlemen in England now a-bed
    Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

    a note. This day shall gentle his condition is based on fact. When Henry V sent out a heralds visitation to determine the legitimacy of armourial bearings veterans of Agincourt were explicitly permitted to have them. they were gentlemen and had the valuable privileges that condition brought.

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  65. So sorry for your loss! We currently have 5 vigorous young kitties in our house — mama and the 4 kittens who are now 7 1/2 months old, and more like adolescent cats now — and as much as we complain about cleaning their litter boxes, feeding them, trying to keep them from destroying houseplants and furniture, etc., we love them. But they will be elderly kitties in 15 years, and that’s not so far away really.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. That is the problem with having a number of kittens the same age. The start leaving us about the same time. That was where we have been. Have had 4 cats all within a few years of each other now 3 times. Currently have three 4 year olds, and one 3 year old (and one 10 year old). We start losing them around age 15, but have had some live to 20 and 22.

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  66. Currently down to the our/my last cat, The Gordon, a white female calico who is at least 24 and maybe older. She and I lost her playmate, Bear, the Great and Terrible, who was really old – 33-34ish and was my wife’s cat-dog back in 2020. He survived cancer, lost and ear there, and stayed with us for five years after my wife passed. Then he just shut down overnight. We both miss them both still. But the Gordon will be my last. I hope I out-live her. She would not do well in another household.

    Funny, back when, whenever we lost a cat (and we lost many over the 50 years we were together), another would come wondering into the yard in a few days. That’s how we got the last two. Bear first, full grown and mellow, and then The Gordon, maybe 4 weeks old and already complaining about her place in life, heh.

    They come and go in their own time, but the memories stay.

    The Gordon just came in to remind that it is past her bed time and would the staff please get with the program.

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