Kind of having a hard time with this one.

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Krienze

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However, I want to comment on something: healthy cats usually don't die from being trapped somewhere for three days, which makes me think that there might have been something going on with her health.
I know =( We believed maybe she had a sudden heart attack though given how nervous of a cat she was, because she'd been trying to find her way out and then suddenly 'nothing.'

Everyone keeps telling me that she was probably sick, but I feel like because I have no idea what happened, I'm having a hard time really accepting any answers.

It's one of the things that just won't quit nagging at the back of my mind.

Thank you for your kind words. They really are appreciated.

If she was sick, I feel badly that I never knew. Her last few vet visits she was in good health.
 

jefferd18

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I know =( We believed maybe she had a sudden heart attack though given how nervous of a cat she was, because she'd been trying to find her way out and then suddenly 'nothing.'

Everyone keeps telling me that she was probably sick, but I feel like because I have no idea what happened, I'm having a hard time really accepting any answers.

It's one of the things that just won't quit nagging at the back of my mind.

Thank you for your kind words. They really are appreciated.

If she was sick, I feel badly that I never knew. Her last few vet visits she was in good health.


Even in people, a bad heart is something that many doctors overlook It take an echo chamber to be able to correctly diagnose a weak heart and that is a procedure that is unfortunately not available for cats.

Not knowing what really happened is a real setback to the healing process, so please let me tell you about Jeff. Jeff was my best friend. She was an extremely large and tomboyish tabby with a wicked sense of humor and big taste for life. On March 29th of last year, she came around the house to greet me as I got out of my car. She came in, ate a large meal and then immediately wanted to go back out to make her rounds. She never came back. I found her two days later, the victim of either heart failure or a clot. My vet checked her body and found no injuries or signs of poison and concluded that whatever happened, happened quickly, and came from within her own body.

The sudden stop of meowing, along with the fact that would have been plenty of air to allow a cat to breath for three days, all leads me to the same conclusion for your baby. It was sudden and it came from within her.

I think I may know how you feel because I feel the same way about Jeff- we protect them and we have their back until the day comes when we can't.

You will see her again, my friend, for CiCi never left you permantly, she is only gone for a short time.
 
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Krienze

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Even in people, a bad heart is something that many doctors overlook It take an echo chamber to be able to correctly diagnose a weak heart and that is a procedure that is unfortunately not available for cats.

Not knowing what really happened is a real setback to the healing process, so please let me tell you about Jeff. Jeff was my best friend. She was an extremely large and tomboyish tabby with a wicked sense of humor and big taste for life. On March 29th of last year, she came around the house to greet me as I got out of my car. She came in, ate a large meal and then immediately wanted to go back out to make her rounds. She never came back. I found her two days later, the victim of either heart failure or a clot. My vet checked her body and found no injuries or signs of poison and concluded that whatever happened, happened quickly, and came from within her own body.

The sudden stop of meowing, along with the fact that would have been plenty of air to allow a cat to breath for three days, all leads me to the same conclusion for your baby. It was sudden and it came from within her.

I think I may know how you feel because I feel the same way about Jeff- we protect them and we have their back until the day comes when we can't.

You will see her again, my friend, for CiCi never left you permantly, she is only gone for a short time.
I'm so sorry about your Jeff =( Thank you for taking the time to write to me. Jeff sounds like they were a wonderful cat! I'm deeply sorry for your loss. The not knowing really is a haunting feeling.

Thank you =) Today has been filled with missing her a tremendous amount. It's officially been a weak and it's been a painful day knowing that.
 

jefferd18

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I'm so sorry about your Jeff =( Thank you for taking the time to write to me. Jeff sounds like they were a wonderful cat! I'm deeply sorry for your loss. The not knowing really is a haunting feeling.

Thank you =) Today has been filled with missing her a tremendous amount. It's officially been a weak and it's been a painful day knowing that.
Thank you, she is dearly missed.

i am so sorry that you are having a painful day.

I won't lie, you will have a few rough days ahead of you. I call them the 'first '- the first summer without her, the first fall without her, the first Christmas without her......

These are some things that helped lessen my pain. Some of them, plus others that I have not listed, may help you as well.

Having a portrait done of her.
Writing about her and even to her
Having a tree planted in her name
With Jeff, I had a large beautiful solar light placed in front of the shed that she loved so dearly.

We are all here for you.
 

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I am so sorry!

If I were a HVAC person, I would cancel appointments with people who had "just" broken units to save a cat. I only wish more people had been that way. But I do agree with the others who said that this alone should not have been enough by itself to result in this outcome. (Sorry, I just lost my kitty too, and I can't say it.) When my cats who have passed on came down with the illnesses that eventually claimed them, they sought out a new place they'd never shown any particular interest in to hide. Maybe that is what she was doing.

I know there is nothing that can be said to make this better. Guilt comes for us all when we lose someone who we are caring for. Every person I've talked to who lost a pet they were connected to like this (in other words, not the "it's just a cat" people) has felt guilt. It doesn't matter what you do... your mind will find a way to tell you that you would have, should have, could have done something else.

Best wishes and I am very sorry this horrible thing has happened.
 

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I am so very sorry this happened.It will take time to grieve but we've all been there.
She' now at the bridge where so many of our babies are. Lola is in charge there and
I know my Vincie girls will take her under her wing, so don't fret. Try to rest and maybe
get out and about for a bit. Write anytime as there is always someone here.

Love,

Mia :hugs: :rbheart::redheartpump:
 

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An aortic aneurysm in humans may be never spotted (it does not hurt, it cant be detected EKG, only echo may offer some indication). It can turns rapidly into aortic rupture = death. Even small aneurysms could explode. This is something difficult to predict or prevent anyway. In USA, aortic aneurysm ranges 19 in the causes of death. So if it is not possible to detect timely in humans, I doubt it can be detected in cats.

We are not the Masters. We all obey the Law. But the nice part is that we also enjoy Love.
 
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Krienze

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Having a portrait done of her.
Writing about her and even to her
Having a tree planted in her name
I did order a mug that is designed with me and CiCi on it =) They put little wings on her. I'm also having a necklace with her image done. We plan on buying a plant as well to put over her grave. I love these ideas. Writing about her has helped quite a bit. I love telling people about her, because she was such a wonderful cat, even if she was a scared one. She was still such a loving baby.

f I were a HVAC person, I would cancel appointments with people who had "just" broken units to save a cat. I only wish more people had been that way.
As I have said before, this is probably one of the hardest things for me to swallow about this whole situation. I hated feeling like my cat was just not important enough to save, like they just didn't care. It made me feel so helpless and I still feel helpless now just thinking about it. I had so many people willing to come out and help, but they couldn't do anything until HVAC looked in with the camera. I felt like I had an army and still was helpless. It wasn't a good feeling at all. The entire time, I just kept trying to strain my ears to hear her when she went quiet.

I am so very sorry this happened.It will take time to grieve but we've all been there.
She' now at the bridge where so many of our babies are. Lola is in charge there and
I know my Vincie girls will take her under her wing, so don't fret. Try to rest and maybe
get out and about for a bit. Write anytime as there is always someone here.
Thank you =) I'm sure she's already made fast friends with them! I like to believe my cats that I lost before her are up there taking her in as well.

I've lost five cats and two dogs in my lifetime. Samantha was old and sick and we had to put her down when I was a child, but I still remember her. She'd sleep under my bed and keep people away from me. She was a SUPER protective cat! I loved her to death! Then there was Sassy. I found him outside being tormented by neighborhood kids. My grandma and I hid him from my mom until she agreed to let me keep him =) He died from an aneurysm when I was in 6th grade. THAT was my buddy, too. Losing him was one of the hardest things to go through. All of our animals passed away from illnesses we learned that they probably had, mostly, before we even took them in.

An aortic aneurysm in humans may be never spotted (it does not hurt, it cant be detected EKG, only echo may offer some indication). It can turns rapidly into aortic rupture = death. Even small aneurysms could explode. This is something difficult to predict or prevent anyway. In USA, aortic aneurysm ranges 19 in the causes of death. So if it is not possible to detect timely in humans, I doubt it can be detected in cats.
We had a cat pass from this =( It's awful. I'm not sure that is how CiCi went though.
 

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If it was me? I'd contact a lawyer and see if there were any grounds for a lawsuit against the HVAC company (likely not because it's a private business and they aren't obligated) and the FD (possible, since it is part of their job in many areas). If there were any grounds I'd pursue it, and then use the money to make anonymous donations to various animal rescues in the area.

It wouldn't bring her back, but at least something good could come of an otherwise horrible situation.
 

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Krienze i am sorry how Cici died :( This isnt your fault and you should put all the guilt that your are feeling out of your heart, you did your best and you gave it all to CiCi all her life and even on her last days you begged and still did all you possibly could to help save her. This is one of those situations where you need to tell yourself destiny, fate and life and death is unknown to us. Yes there may have been a million things that you could have done to prevent it from happening , but is it humanly possible ? And even if you did all the million of possible prevention, would the outcome turn out the same, or be delayed for a day or too ?

This is a sad way to remember CiCi passing, and i know its soon, and your are grieving losing her, but you should remember her with the happy memories that you spent with her, your must instill in your mind all the millions of times that you were there for her, which outweighs the one single time, which was out of your hands and for relying of other people to save her which was a timely situation, unknown and out of your control. And that is the part you are stuck on, is that you were always there to save her, but this was out of your control and the feeling of having to rely on others which they tried but failed, means you failed her. But you failing her isn't true. You trusting others to save her , isn't a failure, you not being close to her when she passed away isn't failing her. Be kind to yourself, and know that Cici is at peace now, and she is with all the billions of beautiful animals who passed away before her and she is being comforted by them and by gods angels.
 
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Krienze

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If it was me? I'd contact a lawyer and see if there were any grounds for a lawsuit against the HVAC company (likely not because it's a private business and they aren't obligated) and the FD (possible, since it is part of their job in many areas). If there were any grounds I'd pursue it, and then use the money to make anonymous donations to various animal rescues in the area.

It wouldn't bring her back, but at least something good could come of an otherwise horrible situation.
I won't lie. The thought crossed my mind. This entire thing has left me feeling beyond helpless, because I couldn't get help from anyone and trust me when I say... I called EVERYONE, fire department, animal control, the police, cat rescues in our area, HVAC. Even tried a plumber of all things. None of them were able to help and I have to admit, knowing how easy it would have been now for them to just GO down there and cut an opening for her, if they had just CHECKED when I begged them to, she could have easily still been alive today. But they didn't check, because I honestly believe it was superbowl weekend and they just didn't want to be bothered dealing with a cat. The HVAC secretary who answered the phone pretty much told me they have to put other clients before a cat in those exact words pretty much (forget the fact that we couldn't even use our system either but hey..)

I don't think a lawsuit would go anywhere though, sadly. And even if it could, I don't have that kind of money to try with the risk of failing, you know?

But thank you x.x I'm glad you suggested it anyway because I admit I was feeling like I was nuts for wanting to, even knowing i probably couldn't <3

Be kind to yourself, and know that Cici is at peace now, and she is with all the billions of beautiful animals who passed away before her and she is being comforted by them and by gods angels.
Thank you for your kind words =) I truly do believe that.
 
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Krienze

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SMALL UPDATE:

I waited about a month, but the entire ordeal is still really messing with me. So I called HVAC this morning.

I explained to them that while I didn't fault or blame the guys who came out, I was deeply hurt by the way I was spoken to on the phone. To be told "If a unit breaks down, I have to put that before a cat." while we've been missing our girl for 4 days and were unable to use our unit was the most hurtful thing to hear in that time. Our cat situation aside, for 4 days we were freezing. It went down into the 20-30's and I told them that too,that while maybe our unit wasn't 'broken' -- our cats life was at stake, and we were freezing in the process.

Those four days were hell for me. I camped out in my bathroom with a blanket and fell asleep several times on the floor trying to lure my cat out. I realize now that doing it all saturday night, she was probably already gone. My knees were bruised from kneeling to try and get up and down and my back has been in intense pain ever since due to my weight, getting on the floor hadn't been easy at all.

I really just wanted them to know what we went through, because that sentence has practically been haunting me ever since and I told the guy, I don't want anything -- I just want to make sure they know what we went through because I want them to never treat anyone like they treated me if this ever happens to anyone else.

The whole ordeal was a nightmare and I think I might have even developed some form of PTSD over it -- as ridiculous as this actually sounds. I end up thinking about what she must have gone through and I end up having panic attacks, feel closed in, I can barely use my own bathroom because being near that vent just causes me to cry, so I use the master bathroom instead.

I think I needed to tell them what we went through. I already, in a sense, feel a little lighter.

The man I spoke to was really nice and he promised that he'd talk to them. I really hope he does.
 

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I know exactly what you are feeling, I still have panic attacks thinking back to losing my own little one, and it had been 7 years..... My heart goes out to you, it does get better but you will always feel the pain. Please know I will pray for you all. May God bless you and bring you peace....
 

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I'm glad you had chance to tell the HVAC rep exactly what happened. I hope something comes of this, but even if it doesn't telling your story to someone must have been cathartic for you.

It takes a long time to get over these things. I lost one of my cats just after Christmas and I've spent all winter thinking about her body in the ground. I feel terrible about her being out in the cold, I apologize to her every time it snows. Ridiculous I know, but I can't stop thinking about her.

There are ways that you can help yourself come to terms with this. Try writing CiCi a letter and burning it or burying it. Paint her picture, write her a poem, whatever way feels the most natural for you to express your feelings to her.

I'm waiting for spring to come so I can plant a tree and make a little garden for Chicken, I think she'd appreciate that.

:hugs: :hugs: :hugs: :hugs: :hugs:
 
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Krienze

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I know exactly what you are feeling, I still have panic attacks thinking back to losing my own little one, and it had been 7 years..... My heart goes out to you, it does get better but you will always feel the pain. Please know I will pray for you all. May God bless you and bring you peace....
The panic attacks, honestly, are the worst. They tend to hit me when I'm alone. I think that's why you guys see me hop on mostly in the early hours, because that's when everything is quiet. Talking to you all really helps.

I've lost animals before and it's always hard, but this one just hit me so differently because it was four stressful days or not knowing what was going on, of feeling helpless, and like no one would help. The fact that I don't know how she died is REALLY stressing me out. I have no idea if she was in pain, or she went quickly.

I keep hoping maybe she just had a heart attack and died quick, so that she didn't linger in pain.

Thank you for your prayers =) I appreciate them more than you know

I'm glad you had chance to tell the HVAC rep exactly what happened. I hope something comes of this, but even if it doesn't telling your story to someone must have been cathartic for you.

It takes a long time to get over these things. I lost one of my cats just after Christmas and I've spent all winter thinking about her body in the ground. I feel terrible about her being out in the cold, I apologize to her every time it snows. Ridiculous I know, but I can't stop thinking about her.

There are ways that you can help yourself come to terms with this. Try writing CiCi a letter and burning it or burying it. Paint her picture, write her a poem, whatever way feels the most natural for you to express your feelings to her.

I'm waiting for spring to come so I can plant a tree and make a little garden for Chicken, I think she'd appreciate that.

It doesn't sound ridiculous at all. <3 I understand! I'm so sorry for your loss though. To lose one so close to a holiday is also so hard. My heart goes out to you.

Yeah, it was cathartic. I felt like they really needed to know. I had so many people willing to help, but they couldn't do anything unless HVAC came out to open the ducts/look in them. But the way I was spoken to, it just didn't set well with me and I felt like I needed to be heard. Thankfully, the man seemed to really listen.

I might try writing her a letter =) I love to write. That might help.

Thankfully I live in Louisiana! It's winter but we can still plant something over CiCi, I'm just struggling to figure out what. We want to order her a little cat statue/headstone as her grave marker too =) I'm still trying to pick one out.
 
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Krienze

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Update:

We finally got CiCi buried this weekend (I know, it's been a month!) Her body had been preserved in the small spare freezer we keep for emergencies. I know that sounds morbid =( but with our weather we'd been unable to bury her and I absolutely couldn't just discard her body. Not when I knew I could have her near me if I was just patient enough. It wasn't easy. But burying her felt like a weight being lifted off my shoulders.

I hadn't seen her body until we buried her.

For weeks, every time I went into my bathroom I'd stress and make myself sick hoping to hear any movement that might indicate that she was still down there and the cat in the box was a stray cat and not our girl. The HVAC guys who had found her body had shouted in surprise when they did, so I had thought 'Oh my god, this cats body must be contorted or something awful.' and I couldn't bring myself to look. But when my mom withdrew her from the bag she'd been in to put her in her little coffin-box, I could see she just looked like she'd curled up and gone to sleep.

I no longer thing she died of a heart attack. I think some of you guys were right, and that she'd been sick and had gone in there to die. She was such a small cat, I couldn't figure out why she couldn't get back out of the ducts -- I mean she was SMALLER than our kitten is, and he's 7months old. Maybe the constant padding around I heard was just her trying to get comfortable to go in peace.

I've been able to use my bathroom now without staring at the vent, too. Which I'm glad for.

She's now buried in our backyard, and when we have the money we're going to purchase her a nice little headstone and cement the area to make sure nothing every happens to the spot.
 
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