Whisper

Whisper came to our house with Irene from one of her rides. Irene had heard this pitiful mewling from inside a closed horse stall. Whisper, maybe six weeks old at the time, had been trapped inside for an unknown period of time. The kitten was in terrible shape, and Irene couldn't leave her there: she had carried the kitten home in her jacket. The idea was that we would help the kitten get back on her feet, then find her a new home.



That idea lasted through one afternoon. I bathed the tiny little cat (she was filthy), and nearly killed her by putting her into shock. Starved, dehydrated, then soaked in water: what was I thinking? I sat on the couch, holding this tiny little kitten wrapped in towels and warmed by a heating pad, for about eighteen hours. She finally squirmed out of her wraps, fluffed her already fluffy fur, opened her mouth hugely wide, and made a tiny, tiny little peep. Suddenly, she had a name- Whisper. We tried to keep her apart from our other cats: who knew what kinds of illness she might be carrying? But, she struggled away from me and buried herself in the fur of Bilbo, our male Siamese. Bilbo started grooming her, and only complained when Whisper tried to nurse from him. Whisper had weaseled her way into our home.



Whisper was loved by all of our cats. It was almost as if they knew she was fragile. Bilbo was her big uncle, and Tuxedo was her playmate. Whisper never grew very big: barely over four pounds at her largest. She definitely played big, though. It seemed to take very little to tire Whisper out, but after a few puffs she was back in the game. So incredibly full of life, and I felt so good to have saved her. Eventually, though, Whisper's strength played out.



When Whisper finished her first heat, we took her in to be spayed. A few days later, she died of post-operative complications at home in my arms. The vet had looked at her when she seemed to be having trouble recovering from her operation, but nothing was obviously wrong. The next day, she was gone. It was so sudden: Whisper was trying to find somewhere comfortable to lie, I picked her up to carry her to a sunny spot, and suddenly she couldn't breath. I wailed and cried, yet I couldn't bring her back. An autopsy revealed a badly deformed heart, tiny malformed lungs, barely functional kidneys, and a deformed liver. I still cry, thinking of all that life with so little strength.