We Say Goodbye to Ginger Cat

At 20 and a half years old, Ginger was a fixture at our house.  Annie picked her out and then insisted she be brought back to Bellevue when she was sent away to an adoption event elsewhere.  She passed away between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 26th.  Nancy was sleeping next to her on the bathroom floor.  For a few days she had stopped eating and then drinking water.  She'd also discovered that some cardboard on the floor in the master bedroom was a lot easier to get to than the litter box.  And finally she could not climb up the stairway to our bed made out of boxes and a chair.  She had been sleeping with Nancy for months. 

Shadow was a friend, shown here watching over old Ginger three days before her passing. 

Here is Nancy's report.

Sorry to report that when I went to sleep with her on the bathroom floor after three a.m., Annie's 20-and-a-half-year-old tortoise-colored cat, Ginger (just coincidentally my mom's nickname!) was still alive, though not drinking water, and stiff when I woke up at six.  I'm kicking myself for not having her on my lap while I was finishing the report early this morning--*sigh*--but we knew it would be soon when she stopped eating the day before yesterday (I just kept hoping, because she had recovered several times before from health challenges).  We're not sorry we went to the extra trouble of cuddling her and cleaning up after her these last few days, when she rarely made it to the litter box, so she could die at home--I wouldn't want less for myself!   

Ginger cat had been very gently purring on my lap yesterday afternoon while I finished the majority of the report, after Nathanael helped me repair the leaky washing machine and do Ginger-cat laundry and before he and I left at five p.m. to get the car from the shop and Jeannie Beth and I left at six for the Gilbert and Sullivan rehearsal.  When we got home at 10:45 p.m., the kids warmed up a slice of pizza for me so I could focus on the report, which I vainly hoped to finish by 11.  I don't like to read shoddy work, so of course I couldn't give up little reorganizations, clarifications, details, and fixing inconsistencies and formatting until 2:21 a.m.  I should have realized I could take an extra half hour to put the cat on my lap and give her water, but I kept hoping to finish quickly.  When I finally picked her up at 3 a.m., she wouldn't drink water any more (she probably went twelve hours without me offering her water).  I should have known then, but I was probably in denial (and angry I hadn't picked her up when I got home). 

I know Ginger was "just my eldest's cat," but I would appreciate prayers for my and Annie's emotions (we've lost too many family and P.E.O. sisters the last two years).  I had sort of hoped Ginger-cat would make it until Annie got home from her year in South Korea and Japan on Grandma Ginger's 91st birthday, July 17th.  We have been Skype-ing, so Annie had gotten to see her cat and hear her purr recently....

♦  I've chosen my textbook for use in Business Statistics this fall.  I'll be using BSTAT by Gerald Keller. Now I have three months to prepare my new hybrid Statistics with Excel course.

♦  I was scheduled to teach a section of BUS 1700 Spreadsheets, June 10-21.  However, the only student who had registered for it was an SPU staff member who planned to audit the class.  So, I cancelled the class due to low enrollment, but I then turned around and offered to teach a seven-hour seminar on Excel to staff from across campus.  In two days I had 28 students signed up.  Except for the one Friday session on lookup functions and graphs, the classes were very well attended.  It was a positive response to my oft expressed complaint that SPU does not train its staff in the use of the most common software tools of our trade.  I could complain or I could offer the training myself.  Leaders at SPU from the Director of Human Resources to the Provost noted the value of what I was providing.  

♦   "His socks inside my shoes inside HIS shoes. My job here is finished."  This was the caption that Annie put on the photo of her expert packing job as she and Thomas prepared to leave South Korea.  At the end of June they are somewhere in Japan, enjoying a much deserved vacation before heading home in July.

♦   I was very surprised by the poor results of my June 27th checkup with Dr. Robert Kelley.  My "numbers" were good except my glucose, which was 199 (up from 160) and my A1c that was a terrible 10.1 (up from 7.0).  The cost of a lack of vigilance and discipline could mean an early death if I don't pay attention to the three areas that promote my diabetes: diet, exercise and sleep.  I'll see him again at the end of September.  For the record my BP was 110/70 and my weight was 192.  On June 30th I was 190.5.

♦   In the tooth department, Dr. To pulled out a loose tooth (which was actually just a crown that had come lose.)  He says there is enough of the tooth left to save it and add a new crown.  This is good news as I was expecting I needed another expensive implant.  Dr. To glued the old crown back on and I'll see him again later in July.