Life and Death

*Warning: extensively long post ahead*

Everybody lives, and everybody dies. It's the circle of life. I experienced a few deaths of loved ones when I was younger. My grandparents on my Mom's side, a great Grandpa, a Great Uncle. But they we're older so it wasn't that hard for me, especially since I was young.

My Grandma Peters was the hardest because she was very close to our family for my whole life, but she was a very strong woman of God, and lived a full life of raising her nine kids. We knew she was going to die so we were able to prepare ourselves. She wanted us to celebrate her life, and not mourn her death. That's exactly what we did. I remember her funeral being more of a party than a sad day.

I did go to the funerals of two young people. One was a guy around 25 who died in a motorcycle accident that had dated one of my cousins, and one was a girl that I was acquaintances with in high school who was around 21 who died in a car crash. Both were very sad, but I wasn't super close with either of them.

When I was about 10 I got some fish, they died. I was really bad and trying to keep fish alive. I just remember counting up all the times that I tried, and the grand total of fish that I killed was 36.

 I remember one time I had this 5 gallon tank and my Dad had felt bad that my previous fish had died so while I was sleeping he put like 6 goldfish in the tank. Little did he know you can't just plop them in there without getting them used to the temperature. So not only did I go to bed sad because my fish had just died, I woke up to 6 dead goldfish. Funny now, not funny then.

My whole life all I wanted was a kitten, but could never get one because my brother was allergic. So finally when I was 18, and he was in Iraq for a year my parents allowed me to have one in the house. I picked her out from a litter at a farm, and she was perfect. I named her Bella.


The first day I brought her home

She was my baby. Everything I ever wished and dreamed for. She was the runt of the litter, and had a crooked little tail.


Me, Bella, and Genna

Soon after I brought her home, I made an appointment with the vet to her her shots and get her fixed. They took her back to another room to do something, and when they came back, I could see it in the lady's eyes that something was wrong. She proceeded to tell me and Genna that Bella had a heart condition, and that she probably wouldn't live past 6 months. Uhm....talk about devastating. I wanted to cry so bad, but I wanted to keep it together for Genna's sake.

So without her shots or without getting fixed (cause why would you fix a cat who was going to die) we took her home, and waited. She seemed like a perfectly healthy kitten. Normal in all aspects. We often wondered if the vet was wrong. Well, 6 months had gone by and Bella was still as playful as always. Never experiencing the fatigue that they said was possible. We could do nothing but wait.

A few more months went by and still nothing....oh but then...something happened. A little something we were not expecting. One day we noticed her belly being a little larger than normal. Within a few weeks it was undoubtedly true. My dying cat was pregnant.

We were really worried that since she was already past the 6 month mark, that the pregnancy would strain her heart too much and she would die from it. Bella was a fighter though. She got through the whole thing like a champ. One day, I woke up...and there were 5 little creatures next to her. I say creatures cause they sure didn't look like kittens.

Bella was a great Mommy. She loved her kittens and laid there endlessly while they all fought for the best nipples to feed on. It was a really awesome experience. When the kittens were about a month old, Bella caught some sort of stomach sickness cause she wouldn't stop throwing up and had diarrhea. I figured she ate something she wasn't supposed to. Well the day went on and she was slowing down a lot.

My babies

At the point where she left her babies and crawled in a corner, I knew it was bad. She hadn't eaten or drank anything all day so I thought I would take a little bottle and try to get her to drink some water. Her breathing was getting very labored as she lay on the basement floor. I sat down right next to her with Genna standing at my side with a bottle of water in hand, and as I put her head in my hand, she took her last breath.

It was definitely more sad than any funeral that I had ever been to. Not only had my one and only baby died, but I had 5 little kittens who were not ready to leave their Mommy yet. We had to feed them kitten formula every couple hours for what seemed like forever till they started eating soggy cat food.

Daily Feeding Routine

All of this is just a little background on my pet history. When I was in about 1st grade, we got our first and only dog, Kirby.



Today, at approximately 18 years old, Kirby has finally passed away. And saying "passed away" is putting it gently, because you don't want to actually know how it happened. Lets just say he was suffering a lot, so my Dad took things into his own hands.

So I will give a little photo tribute to our always faithful dog, Kirby.


Kirby, Kirbster, Krabby, etc...Named after Kirby Puckett



Kirby and Bella. RIP



Kirby and the new addition, Dexter