Christmas Eve 1

May I just say that life is NEVER boring when you have four young children? Especially around Christmas time. But I wish Christmas Eve had held a little less excitement this year.

We lost a beloved member of our family, one of the girls' cats. Ginger had been sick all day on the 23, vomiting even water. I was up very late, just to keep an eye on her. Early on Christmas Eve the girls and I put her into the little carrier and took her to the animal hospital. I just couldn't imagine what was wrong with her. She is an indoor cat and has never been outside. She only eat cat food, no human food or snacks. And all her shots are current.

It didn't take as long to see a vet as it did to see a doctor at the Children's emergency room. They decided to run some blood tests and xrays to try to find out why Ginger was so very sick. I reluctantly left Ginger in the tender care of the hospital to take the girls back home since we had not had breakfast yet and it was already lunch time.

Soon I received a very sad phone call. The xrays showed a two foot long piece of some kind of wire all kinked and wrapped up inside Ginger's intestines. It only took me a minute to know exactly what it was. First I will say that all the decorations on our tree are child and pet friendly, all crocheted angels or ones made from felt, cloth, or handkerchiefs. No icicles or fringe type things for children or pets to ingest.

But we had purchased a roll of tiny snowflakes threaded on a wire (I thought it was string) for a school project about 2 weeks ago. We used some and I put the rest back into the plastic package. I do not know how or when Ginger got hold of that roll of Christmas decorations. I am nearly always at home and never saw her with it. The cats must have gotten hold of it during the night, and there was never any of it in the floor or anywhere else, so they must have put it neatly away when she finished eating as much as she could fit into her little stomach.

So, the only humane thing to do was for the vet to give Ginger a shot to make her go to sleep, never to wake up. She was in a lot of pain and there just wasn't anything else to do. We cried most of the rest of the day. I don't know why I cry when one of the children's pets dies, but even a hamster's death ruins my day. And poor little Lisa cried more than I have ever seen her cry. She loves kitties and Ginger always slept with either the girls or me. We will miss her so much. But George, her kitty brother misses her most of all. He goes through the house crying and there is no Ginger to come running to play with him.