The Last Battle
by Debra Zemke
(Redding, CA )
Miss Kitty
Miss Kitty-Stressed Out? NOPE!
Miss Kitty LOVES her Meices
Miss Kitty's Boa-Tail
She sacheted into our family and for 16 years Miss Kitty graced us with her voice, with her 40+ word vocabulary, her huge presence and intelligence, moodiness, extreme skills in hunting and delivering wild game to our feet, but most of all with her unconditional love and the loudest purrrrr you can imagine.
She was always there. Every day when I came home from work, there she was to greet me with her voice. She knew just how to welcome me home by wrapping her huge boa-like tail around my leg to hug me, and then began her relentless pursuit for some supper to be placed in her china dish.
Miss Kitty told us her name by her actions & personality when she came to us from out of the woods behind a cabin at the end of a country road. She was so large she was frightening, but seemed so sweet, she "wanted" us for her family.
She had been abandoned there and lived in the woods, she was feral for at least a year. She never wanted to leave us. She became ill w/thyroid disease and her vet put her on daily medication which straightened her out.
The side-effects however proved not so good. She lost her battle because the meds caused kidney damage as well as congestive heart failure. I had to do the most heart-wrenching thing Oct. 6th 2010 and take her to the vet for the last time.
It was her last battle, and it was made a tiny bit more bearable because of the poem I found on the wall in the exam room where I had to hold her as she left me. I hope this poem helps those who have to endure this painful loss as it has helped me for the last 2.5 yrs. since Miss Kitty left for the Rainbow Bridge. (A wonderful & touching poem as well!)

The Last Battle
If it should be that I grow weak
and pain should keep me from my sleep.
Then you must do what must be done
For this last battle can not be won.
You will be sad, I understand
Don't let the grief then stay your hand.
For this the day, more than all the rest
Your love for me must stand the test.
We've had so many happy years
What is to come will hold no fears.
You'd not want me to suffer so
The time has come to let me go.
Take me where my needs they'll tend
And please stay with me till the end.
Hold me close and speak to me
Until my eyes no longer see.
I know in time you will see
The kindness that you did for me.
Although my tail it's last has waved
From pain & suffering I've been saved.
Please do not grieve it must be you
Who has this painful thing to do.
We've been so close, we two these years
Don't let your heart hold any tears.
Author unknown
A Poem
By
Debra Zemke
“When Kitty Flies”
There’ll come a day, much like before
Miss Kitty will take wing
We’ll loathe the day and yet inside
I know that we will sing!
She came to us, seems from somewhere
Sacheted right into our lives,
Now spends her days watching over us
Lavishing our lives with her cries.
Told us her name, when hence she came
Been talking ever since,
Quick with her voice, which food her choice
Her preference is “Fresh” game.
She loves to fly, of that I’m sure…
For she boarded a jet all alone
She flew those miles Alaska-Bound,
Sure someone would take her home!
Of course, we followed her up there,
With her in charge, what choice we had?
It took some time, her mood to change
She thought we’d been so bad.
Now in Alaska, she does dwell,
And loves it just as we
For where else do the Eagles soar
Freely above the sea!
One day we’ll miss her huge green eyes,
For Kitty Heaven she’ll be bound
Where Eagles don’t snatch Kitties Prey,
And They are de-clawed found!
It’s then she’ll really take to flight
And this time without plane!
She’ll stretch all out spread-eagle!!
She’ll fly right back to Maine!