Cookie and Cream

Almost a year before I got Prince, one of the feral cats living in my neighborhood gave birth to four kittens in an old, unused doghouse I had on the side of my yard.  They were all girls, and we named them Farrah, Leah, Clara and Oreana (or Oreo).  I kept Clara and Oreo, and my sister took Farrah and Leah.  Because of Oreo's name, and Clara's coloring, my boyfriend nicknamed them Cookie and Cream.

Oreo and Clara in their favorite spot

Both Clara and Oreo liked dogs (especially Isabel!) but Clara had her doubts about Prince.  Each time he sniffed her, she would huddle down in a small heap and gaze around in a terrified manner until he lost interest and walked away.  Oreo didn't mind him at all, though,and when she was very small, she even tried to sleep with him at night, until he got too rowdy for her.

Prince had a special feeling for Oreo.  Every time he saw her, he would try to wash her, or even put his entire head underneath her so that she was practically sitting on his muzzle, and sniff and lick her stomach.  What I think he knew at the time (and we, of course, did not) was that Oreo was sick.

Oreo

After she got spayed, Oreo began to lose weight.  I don't know if she possibly got infected with something during the procedure, or it was something she'd had all along that was triggered by the stress of the surgery, but even though she ate, she continued to deteriorate.  We took her to the doctor's almost every week, tried countless antibiotics, vitamin shots, food supplements, natural food, all of the most expensive foods that we could find, and none of it helped.  The veterinarian thought she had feline leukemia.  She suggested putting her to sleep, but we wanted to keep trying.  We even fed her formula from a bottle and spoon fed her baby food, but she ended up dying a few weeks later.

It's always extraordinarily difficult to lose a pet, but losing one so young has always been even harder for me.  She was my boyfriend's favorite cat, and he was her person...when she was well, every time she got excited about something at night or wanted to play, she would wake him up by jumping on his chest and rubbing her head against his beard.  He always felt like she was saying, " Come look at this, Steve!  Come see!"  (And he always did.)

I wish we had been able to figure out what Prince knew, long before any of the rest of us did.  If I'd known I was going to have her for such a short time, I would have been able to give her twice as much love as I did.