Toc and Skrinnie by donna zeigfinger

Toc and Skrinnie

by donna zeigfinger

have a very emotional story to tell you. In 1990 I adopted a cat named TOC. I got that name because I had another cat named Skrinnie and I could not come up with a name so I kept calling her The Other Cat. Finally my sister said "Why not name her TOC?" Anyway TOC and Skinnie because close friends.This was good you see because Skrinnie is not the nicest cat around and I hoped that this would mellow her out. I met my future husband about a year later. We would travel on weekends to his house and all hang out. Jeff and I then decided it was time to move in together. Skrinnie and TOC both hated Jeff's sons. Skrinnie would hiss and get in these nasty moods and TOC would pee on their beds when they left. It was about this time or shortly after that they had a fight over food. It was a bad fight that I had to break up. After that they basically never spoke to each other again. Once in a while they would chase each other thru the house but that was about it. They would fight on occaission. Skrinnie would usually slap TOC in the morning because TOC was so anxious to get her breakfast and Skrinnie could not stand it. We bought our own house about 2 years later. The house had a sunny porch and we put in a cat door so they could go in and out of the porch (indoor only cats). We also had the litter boxes in the porch.TOC would wait until Skrinnie would go in the porch to use the box and then when Skrin wanted to come back in TOC would bat at the door and they would have a batting door match. Usually it was in the middle of the night. They would tolerate each other but could not be in close quarters. Skrinnie has her space limit and it is usually in the same room! Well a week ago on Friday, TOC was diagnosed with inoperable cancer and was given 2 weeks maximum to live. She made my home office her hospice room, I think partly to be closer to me and partly because she liked hanging out in that room where her blanket was. As she got weaker I noticed that Skrinnie started to hang out in the room right next to her. She did this on several occaissions but we thought it was because we were giving food to TOC that was special and Skrinnie is a "pig cat" (that is her nick name). But one night Jeff told me before he came to bed that Skrinnie was in my office on my chair. We did not think anything of it. I woke up around 230A and checked and she was still in there! She was just watching TOC. On the day that TOC was to be euthanized I lured Skrinnie in the room with treats thinking that she would eat and leave as she usually does. She hung out with TOC for the next few hours until the vet arrived. When the vet came we took TOC out of the room and shut the door because we did not want Skrinnie to watch. Normally Skrin can not handle shut doors and makes a big fuss but not a peep out of her this time. The vet told us that we should allow to see TOC's body so Skrinnie knows where she went. When the vet left I opened the door so Skrin could come out. I went outside for a minute and when I came back in Skrinnie was starting to check the body out but then scattered away. I picked her up and brought her over to the body and she totally freaked out! So I just left it at that. We buried TOC on the sunny side of the house where she used to like to hang out on the porch (we have since enclosed the porch about a year ago) A few days later (yesterday actually) I was in my office when I heard this mournful cry. I thought that Skrinnie was going to vomit as that is what we are used to when they do that. But this was a different sound. I ran out to see what was wrong and she was standing in the living room just walking around. Mind you this is a cat that hardly ever meows. About an hour later she did it again. I guess that there was a sisterly love that we will never know about. As you can see I am having a hard time dealing with this death but at the same time thought that Skrinnie has more feelings then I thought. I have also put together a website and thought you would like to see it. http://hometown.aol.com/dzeigfinge/myhomepage/petmemorial.html Thank you for listening Donna Zeigfinger

Comments would be appreciated by the author, donna zeigfinge