My wife and I lost a valuable member of our family at 6:00AM this morning. He was a Himalayan cat named Runner-Of-The-Twilight (Runner for short). He would have been 7 years old in March. I thought that he would live forever. He was the greatest non-human companion that I had ever known. What I do not understand is that this was totally unexpected. He was fine at 11:00PM last night. I got up at 5:45AM this morning to go to work. He was lying on the couch with our female Himalayan when I went to warm up the car. After I brushed my teeth in the master bathroom, I saw him sitting on the sink of the hallway bathroom where we keep the cats' water glass. I patted him on the head and went to get dressed. It wasn't 2 minutes later that my wife yelled that something was wrong with Runner. I immediately ran to the bathroom to find him completely lifeless on the floor. No breathing, convulsing, or anything. Just lying there peacefully. I stroked his long coat as he lay there on the floor. Meanwhile my wife started crying and ran to the living room. That got me to crying also and I just sat there on the floor cradling him in my arms. I am getting ready to bury him under the blue spruce in the front yard in a few moments. Does anyone have any idea what happened to him? He has had a few urinary blockages years ago that required hospitalization, but we have kept him on prescription food from the vet since that time. We did not allow him to eat anything other than that food. We also gave him bottled water instead of tap water. We used to get his shots every year, but haven't the last few years since he is strictly an indoor cat. He would throw up a hairball on a daily basis. I thought that maybe he choked on one, but my wife says that she heard him cough once, followed by a long mournful howl. That leads me to believe that he could breathe. As soon as she heard him howl, my wife immediately got up and found him dead. He was healthy and maintaining his weight (about 15#). He had a good appetite. Could his heart have failed? I am thankful that he passed away while I was awake and home. I would have felt worse to have found him dead when I got up or if it had happened while I was at work. He only had a 25 minute window from the time I get up until the time I leave. He collapsed 5 minutes before I was to leave. May God watch over him now.

[center][img]http://community.webshots.com/storage/1/v0/8/61/81/28486181OkhRnQUeYC_ph.jpg[/img][/center]
[center][b]March 29, 1995-January 4, 2002[/b][/center]

Maybe it was bloat, did the cat just eat and run around after eating?

Sorry for your loss M4Madness. I recently had to take my 11 year old part Maine Coon to the vet. He was losing fur on his back. We thought he had a skin condition. He too is an indoor cat. Come to find out he is diabetic. His blood sugar level was 20. It should have been 8. I felt very guilty because this summer he lost weight. I thought it was due to the food we switched him too. We changed back and he gained a little back.
Now he is on a high fiber diet food we buy at the vet and 2 needles a day of 4 units of insulin. His coat looks like it did when he was 2 years old, he has more energy and is playfull again. I can't imagine not having him follow me around the house. The day he spent at the vet was to much. I came home from leaving him there and he was the first thing I looked for when I came through the door.

Thanks, guys, for the kind words. They definitely make this easier. Our female has being looking for him. She just doesn't understand.



Same here. We used to raise wolf and wolf hybrid cubs and had some die unexpectedly. We drove out of town to a place and had an autopsy perfomed on one for $26 (parvovirus). But I do not wish to allow them to cut up my little buddy.



I know what you mean. The couple of times that we had to leave him at the vet for his urinary tract blockages were very difficult. He didn't understand why we were leaving him. He never would eat while he was at the vet, so he always had a good appetite when he came home.



No offense taken, Aviator.



It has been so long, I'm not even sure if I could find the woman again. I drove to another town to purchase him. I'll have to dig up his CFA papers and try to do a search that way. Thanks very much for the help!