Farewell Ida and Nora

Both Ida and Nora left us this morning for the Rainbow Bridge . . . they would probably never have considered going anywhere else together! Ida really did not like cats, and Nora was a shy girl, often playing in boxes and usually following her sister Mavis. Ida was about 14 years old - most of those years lived at Ascension Hermitage & Sanctuary - and had fairly severe epilepsy. We always struggled to keep her medication balanced. In her younger days, she could be quite demanding: she was one of the beagles who thought we should be up and working toward breakfast by 4:30 or 5 at the latest! Ida didn't so much bark as howl . . . the house is noticeably quieter now. In the last weeks, Ida up-ended the day - she no longer wanted to eat breakfast but was ravenously hungry at night, usually sometime between 9 pm and 3 am!  Ida was never affectionate until very near the end of her life - she always called me when she wanted food or water and then seemed very content to let me pet her as well.

Nora had also lived at Sanctuary House for many years - she and her sister came as tiny kittens when their mother was killed, but were almost instantly adopted by Anya who had kittens of her own. As a young kitten, Nora lost one eye to infection, but that didn't seem to bother her. Nora liked to run and jump and shred cardboard! We suspect that Nora had cancer - she loved to eat, especially canned cat food, but in the past week or ten days lost weight dramatically. Instead of playing chase and hide-and-seek in the boxes, she began sleeping more and more. Last night I gave her a can of Friskies fish pate, a particular favorite - she ate a little and then lay down right beside the dish as her cat friends ate the rest. This morning she was gone.  

I hope Ida and Nora have found each other at the bridge, and that it's true that we'll all be more inclined to like each other there - maybe they'll even be friends while they wait for the rest of us!