Phantom-R.I.P. *A Lesson Learned

When we moved into our house back in September of '10 we inherited this cute little kitten that was about 3 months old and his mom.  Admittedly I was not thrilled about having a cat since I did not want another mouth to feed and take care of, but Jason and Halle both fell in love and I couldn't say no.  After living in the house for about a month we noticed that the mamma cat was pregnant-again!  I mean, Phantom (the kitten) was only about four months old.  We decided to take the cat to the animal shelter.  It was sad and I felt a little guilty but I have no regrets.

Phantom was a good cat and loving, VERY loving.  I nearly killed myself several times by trying to walk outside.  He was under our feet at every moment, needing to be held or petted.  Honestly, I would want to take Halle outside and sit on the grass and he would literally push Halle out of my lap.  

Since he was an outdoor cat he needed to protect his territory; meaning that we often woke up at 2 AM to spitting cat-fights. The next day we would see that Phantom had won-which he always did, but often had the battle wounds to show for it. More than once we thought that we would lose him because we didn't have the money to take him to the Vet. However, this cat was a fighter and always pulled through until this winter.

One day in middle January he was meowing loudly at the door; Halle was eager to pet him and I did not want to get us all bundled just to go out and pet him for 2 minutes.  So, I let him in.  I noticed that he was moving very slowly and was in a lot of pain.  I could see that he was very sick and I felt awful, but we really did not have the money to take him to the Dr.  After letting Halle have her few minutes of petting him we let him out.  The pain of seeing him in such a state stuck with me and once Halle went down for her nap I went out looking for him, but to no avail.

Nearly three weeks later I went out to the chicken while just walking around in the back yard as the snow melted when I finally found the poor kitty.  His poor little body was lying on the frozen ground.  It appears that the day I let him go from the house that he didn't make it more than thirty yards before collapsing.  Suffice it to say that my heart broke, and I made a promise.  A promise that consisted of not taking on more than I can chew, meaning I will only take on a responsibility that I have the ability to respond to; both emotionally and financially.

This post was not intended to be an essay, but just a simple post of pictures of Halle and her little friend.  Thanks for bearing with me as I unloaded by emotional baggage.  Here are a few pics of the little one and her friend: