Piper - Boss Of The House

Carol cradling Piper


Little fuss pot cleaning herself

Piper drinking water

Piper in quiet contemplation

Prue is Piper's elder sister

Prue enjoys grooming time

Phoebe is Prue's daughter

Phoebe does not like being groomed

Smug looking Phoebe

How do you write an eulogy for a pet cat?

Piper came to us in year 2002 together with Prue. The two sisters are Norwegian mixed Persians. Prue is always a giver; sombre, accommodating and totally with no complaints. In contrast Piper was the boss. She complained when the other 2 cats messed up the home, she complained when her maid (Carol) did not discard their pooh pooh, she complained when Phoebe puked in the cage .... and the complaints run on. Of the 3 she was the most loving and the most 'human' of them all. She gave us many moments of joy and laughter in the quietude of our home. When she was about 2 months old she would jump onto the curtains and hang on to the curtain with her claws and this made our curtains more see thru than it should be. She would also stand on her two hind legs trying to catch the bait we had hanging over a string. With amazement we have seen her chasing and bullying dogs 3 to 4 times her size. Pretty, our pup Cocker Spaniel used to go into the cat's cage to have their feed and Piper will smack the daylight out of Pretty. But she also enjoyed having a brawl with Pretty, often times we have to separate them as we were afraid that Pretty may get hurt. With all the pompous of a character she was terribly afraid of the rain and thunder.

She passed on today in the wee hours of the morning from a heart problem. We never knew she had a heart condition until she was unwell last week. We brought her to board with the vet, Healing Pets at Damansara Jaya. Her condition improved but we did not take her home. At that time it was not discovered she had a heart problem. Just 3 days ago she was diagnosed with a swollen heart. Ultra sound, tests and everything possible were done on her. She was on drips as she was not drinking and eating. Her heartbeat soared to 200. Because of the timing we were not able to visit her but her vet kept a vigil on her giving us feedback. There were times where she almost slipped but she hung on. Carol managed to hurry over to see her after work last night. Though weak she seemed OK. This morning the vet informed that Piper passed on in the morning.

How do I inform Carol? I asked her to come to my room and we started on small chats ranging from mundane things and slowly into Buddhism. And I broke the news to her. We cradled one another for a while and we got dressed to see Piper and make the necessary arrangement.

We brought her home, cleaned her, wrapped her in a white cloth and buried her at our backyard with flowers and all. Prue and Phoebe are home too. They are rather quiet. Do they know that Piper is no longer with them?

I pray for Piper's swift and good rebirth. I pray.