Sheridan, RIP

[aishabintjamil]

Sheridan passed on about midnight last night. It all happened very quickly. He'd been a little less hungry than usual Wed. night, and ate still less yesterday morning. We thought that might be another sign he was slipping. We'd decided when we first got the diagnosis that his kidneys were failing back in August that when he stopped being willing to eat that would be time to let him go.

Beth tried to tempt him yesterday afternoon with some baby food, but he only ate half a jar before he lost interest. At that point we were thinking about planning to bring him in to the vet on Monday. I tried to offer him more food around 8 last night, and he wouldn't touch it at all. At that point we decided waiting for Monday probably wasn't realistic, and we'd call the vet first thing this morning.

He spent the rest of the evening draped over my lap. I'm not really sure he was conscious any more when we went up to be around 10. His eyes were open, but he wasn't really responding to anything. We thought about whether we should take him to the emergency clinic instead of waiting for the regular vet in the morning, but he didn't seem to be in any distress, so we just made him comfortable for the night. About midnight we woke up and realized he wasn't breathing any more.

He was often not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was sweet and loving. Tonight is the first time in weeks that I've sat at my computer without him curled in my lap. I've uploaded a few more snapshots to flickr, for any of his friends who want to remember him. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/24368866@N02/sets/72157622845085192/ ). Sadly I don't have a photo of the image I'm remembering him by with the most pleasure: a backyard cookout in early September where he came trotting proudly up to us with a live, squirming frog from the fishpond in his mouth.