Roofer

If you've ever had the opportunity to visit The Blue Bell Foundation for Cats, you would remember Roofer. He would sit in front of you and claw up your leg, begging to be picked up and carried over your shoulder while he grabbed on and nuzzled your ear. Or if you sat on the couch, he would climb up into your lap and lay along your leg and wrap his paws on either side and nuzzle your knee. :) And every day was a bad hair day for Roofie. I would give him a bath or we would brush him and he would look so nice and the very next morning it was all messy and frazzled. His fur grew in all patchy after a recent lion cut but it just added to his charm. And because he was very thin he often sported some pretty snazzy sweaters that we will all remember.

Roofer came to Blue Bell in 2002 with Tuna who has since passed, and Scooter who is still with us. He was about 20 years old and had several conditions including hyperthyroidism and kidney failure. Our wonderful vet would always shake her head and was continually amazed he was still alive. But alive he was and although he slept more in the past months, he still loved attention and food and going out on the patios.

Saturday he was acting normal and ate fine. Sunday AM he ate some of his own breakfast as well as pushed Baby off her plate and ate some of hers too - he did not show manners when it came to food. I went to give him his fluids and oral meds around 11:00am and noticed a very small streak of blood on his paw. I examined his paw, thinking it might be a torn nail and I saw another small spot of blood on his blanket. I didn't see anything obvious so I opened his mouth to give him his meds and there was not only blood in his mouth but a small blood clot. I ran to get the phone to contact the vet and some paper towels. Over the next minute the bleeding increased dramatically along with passing several large clots and it was obvious something was severely wrong. He was not coughing or vomiting but the blood was soaking towels every minute. He did not appear to be in pain. I sat on the floor and put him in his bed between my legs and wrapped in a blanket and held the paper towel under his mouth and kept changing them. The vet was on her way.

While this was happening, Domino, a female cat who does not like other cats and who has never had a relationship with Roofer, came and crawled into my lap and snuggled her body against Roofer and immediately started purring very loud! I was blown away! And when I would change the paper towel, she would nuzzle his head and lick the side of his face as if to comfort him. She stayed there for over 30 minutes until the vet arrived. It was such a special moment that I will never forget!

When the vet arrived, Roofer climbed out of my lap and went to the dry food bowls which had just been refilled and grabbed two mouthfuls of food and then went to a plate of wet food and started eating that too. He was 100% Roofer right up until the end - getting some luvin' from a girl cat and a meal to go! What a way to go!

The vet thinks that it was either a cancerous mass in his throat that had ruptured or a bleeding disorder called thrombocytopenia. He was put to sleep and passed peacefully in Annie's arms.

We'll' miss you little buddy, wise old man, Mr. Copper Eyes..... enjoy the Bridge - I know you've got a lot of friends waiting to greet you!