zed's dead baby, zed's dead

After about nineteen years of living with us, the old girl is gone. I can't remember exactly how old she was, but it's between 19-20. I can't remember if I was in 7th or 8th grade at the time, but I'm pretty sure it was 7th. Our cat had kittens and each of us got to keep one. Zed was my sister's cat, named for Bobcat Goldthwait's character in the Police Academy movies. Blame our bad taste in movies on our age, and our lack of expertise in feline sex identification. We thought she was a male at first and by the time we realized she was just really butch, it was too late to change it.

We had so many other cats come and go between now and then. She outlived and outwitted all of them. She used to "greet" us whenever we came home and escort us out whenever we were leaving. We thought it was the cutest thing ever. She did this until about a year ago when someone's dog got loose, killed our other cat, and injured Zed. She hadn't really been the same since but she was still a tough old broad. You could tell she resented being kept in the garage but we didn't want to risk another attack. Over the weekend she wasn't eating as much and she kept getting stuck behind the refrigerator. Sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning she got stuck somewhere else. She just seemed worse after that. My mom asked me to check on her at lunch and I knew she was on her way out. She just looked and sounded miserable. After my dad got home, we took her to the vet to have her put down. The doc said she would have passed on her own in a few days, so I felt better about the decision, as good as you can feel about it I guess. I didn't go in the room with her because my dad wanted to go. Even though he complains about our pets, I know he really loves them and he takes it really hard when we lose one of them. He even made me take a few pictures of them together before we left. Don't tell anyone, okay?

r.i.p. ms. zed.