Around one year ago a sweet and quiet grey and white girl arrived at Tabby’s Place. She was kinda shabby looking and had a large lump on her rear leg.
Allison was very sweet from her first day here at Tabby’s Place, where she became a resident of our Community Room. She immediately made a home for herself on Danielle’s desk, and got us all trained to bring her food to “her” desk. She had her own litterbox right next to the desk, so she wouldn’t have to walk around the room with all the other pesky cats. If Danielle left her desk for a few minutes you could bet that Allison would have typed about half a page of Allison-talk by the time Danielle got back. Somehow Allison even managed to lock up Danielle’s computer a few times, and we had to call in computer whiz Jonathan to unlock it!
Allison loved her huge comfy beds on her desk, but even more than that she loved attention from us humans. If you were in the community room and not petting Allison, you would hear a very loud MMMMEEOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!, which basically translated to WHY am I not being petted??!!
Each day during our morning meeting, someone had to sit near Allison to pet her, or she would yell at us through the entire meeting. Of course she could have just jumped off the desk and walked over to us for pets, but she had us trained much better than that!
When Allison first came to us, a little under a year ago, she was diagnosed with mast cell cancer and given 2 months to live. We decided not to put her through chemotherapy, as the cancer was too far advanced. The 2 months came and went and Allison was still with us, and still thriving!
About 5 months ago Allison was diagnosed with early renal failure and started receiving subcutaneous fluids everyday. Around the same time, she was diagnosed with arthritis, which didn’t seem to slow her down at all.
But during the last couple of weeks Allison was with us, the renal failure kicked into high gear. She started to feel run down and was losing her appetite. Her arthritis also became very bad, and she could no longer make it up to “her” desk, even using the pet stairs we had placed there for her. We gave her lots of big and comfy beds on the ground, and still made sure she got lots of attention and pets. By now she wasn’t even yelling at us for attention. We knew the end was near.
Allison let us know on the day she was ready to leave us. She had stopped eating and wasn’t even enjoying pets. She was uncomfortable and it was time to say goodbye to our girl. All the staff gathered around her, giving her pets and telling her how much we loved her as we gently let her go.
Everytime I walk past “her” desk I think of her…the super gentle girl with the big meow.
Karina, thank you for your beautiful tribute to sweet Allison. She adored you too.
Bye-bye, sweet Allison.
RIP sweet baby girl. I’m so glad you were surrounded by so much love. We’ll all see you again someday.
As Correspondent for Allison to her sponsors, it was very difficult to lose this little girl. She had a spirit and spunk all her own, in spite of her illness. Her final months in life were blessed with love, good care, companionship, and much TLC from staff and volunteers. We loved her; she loved us. Simple-and what we do BEST at Tabby’s Place.
Rest in peace, little one…and thank you for letting me share your “tales” each month with your sponsors.
Thank you, all, for your beautiful tribute to this very special little cat. Like all of you, I loved her so much and will miss seeing her and hugging her in the Community Room. Until we meet again, Allison — rest in peace, sweet girl.
Allison was such a loving and gentle lady-cat. I will miss her until the day I finally see her again.
RIP Allison, I’m sure your presence in the Community Room will be missed.