RIP Kip

Our little kitty, Kip, died on Wednesday evening.  For nearly a year he'd been in a bit of a decline, losing weight and acting like he was not quite there, and then he'd rally, gain some of the weight back, and seem like his old self - but over the last couple of weeks, he really went downhill, and on Wednesday morning, Jeff woke me up to say that he didn't think Kip would be here much longer.  He spent some quality time with Kippers before finally leaving for work, and I held Kip for most of the afternoon:

April 2005 - December 6, 2017

Jeff came home from work and Kip made a couple of sounds that indicated to us he was in discomfort, so we called our vet and were able to bring him in shortly after; on the drive there, he started to act like breathing was beginning to be a struggle, and if there was any doubt in our minds that we were doing the right thing, that was erased when we saw him like that; one thing we can do for our pets is to not have them suffer and linger at the end of their lives.  Of course, it was still hard in the moment, but we were with him at the end, and it was quick and peaceful.

I wish I had the kitten pictures of him, but they were taken before I had a digital camera, and are printed and in a box somewhere in this house.  He was a cute little kitty, you'll have to take my word for it.  Here's some other shots that capture a bit of his personality:

Christmas was always fun for Kip...who needs presents when you could have a bag?

He had no fear.  Jeff was taking an ice bath after a long run and Kip jumped right in!

 Hammock time with Jeff was always relaxing...

Pretty much any time he could hang out in the backyard with Jeff was good for Kip.

He helped me knit a lot of projects over the years, and never tried to mess with my yarn - good kitty!

I knitted some mitten ornaments and had to try one out on Kip, who did not really appreciate that, but also didn't protest with more than a disapproving look.

Kip had at least one other family that we knew of - our next door neighbors, who had a cat named Sassy who happened to look just like Kip.  They were best friends and would hang out together, and Kip even was fed by Sassy's parents every morning.  Sassy died about a year ago, and it's good to think that they are back together again now, hanging out on a driveway somewhere, watching the world go by just like they used to do.

Occasionally Kip would disappear for a few days and when he'd return, he wouldn't even be hungry, so we figured that he was just hanging out with another family...of course, it would have been nice to know that for sure all those times, because we worried when he didn't come home every day.  But he always came home, so I'm pretty sure we were number one to him.

Kip was fearless; if we had a ladder out, he'd be at the top in the blink of an eye, and whenever we'd drop the ladder to the attic, we always had to check the attic when we were finished, because we accidentally locked him up there once.  Turned out he could meow pretty loud when he needed to!  And one time when a friend was leaving my house, we spent a few minutes chatting on my driveway with her door ajar; she drove off and was partway out of my neighborhood when suddenly she saw Kip's head pop up in her rear view mirror!  She made a U-turn and brought him home...silly Kip.

I'm glad I got my new phone with the good camera a couple of months ago because along with all of the memories we have of our Kippers, we also have some really good pictures:

Goodbye, sweet Kip.  We will miss you.