Mortimer update in Diary

Dave called the vet yesterday and arranged to take Mortimer in on Friday morning. Last night he decided to give her a flea bath as she still had fleas, and she was also filthy and stunk of urine, so we needed to wash that off her before it started to burn her skin.

During the bath, she suddenly went floppy, stopped breathing and passed out unconscious. Dave went into a panic shouting that he had killed his cat. I remembered my first aid training and got him to wrap her in a towel, rubbing her chest. We laid her in the recovery position in a warm place and carried on rubbing her. I was ready to start giving her mouth-to-mouth but eventually she opened her mouth and took some deep gasping breaths. She eventually woke up and walked, very wobbly, over to her food bowl and had something to eat. She then laid down on her bed but kept falling off, lying on the floor and yowling pitifully.

We laid her on a bed of towels underneath the radiator, covered in another towel with another portable radiator next to her, as she was freezing cold. She passed out again, still breathing very shallow but definitely unconscious. I could tell her body was shutting down; I tickled her feet and pinched her toes and got absolutely no reaction. When we were going to bed, I said to Dave I would take Harrison up and he could stay with her for a while. He asked “Why, what can I do for her?” I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that it was time to say goodbye.

He woke up this morning and went down to check on her, and came running back up a minute later, sobbing his heart out. I just got up and hugged him while he cried, he didn’t have to say anything.

I told him not to go to work today, but he wanted to go and “do something normal”. I know how he feels, I was back at work the week after Jay died.

He’s leaving work early though, so we can bury her before it gets dark tonight.

He’s convinced that he killed her with the bath and nothing I say can convince him otherwise. She was very unwell, a bath wouldn’t have affected a healthy cat at all. And, if she had made it to Fridy, I reckon the vet would have recommended euthanasia anyway.

Poor Dave, he’s had her for 16 years since she was a kitten. I reckon he’ll be giving Harriet lots of love and cuddles tonight, Mortimer was her sister in all but blood, there’s only a few weeks age difference between them.