Harvey Has Left The Building

My cat, Harvey “In The House” Mandel was put to sleep today. Harvey was 18 years old and I never took her to a vet. She was healthy as a horse. Not sick once. She also had her claws and never scratched anything. She could have done real damage to my speakers if she wanted to, but she never laid a pawn on them.
Last couple of weeks she hasn’t been eating. Harvey has no teeth but that never stopped her from eating. The one thing she loved to do was eat. All I had to say was “Harvey, do you want to eat” and her ears perked up and she went right to her dish. Lately when she ate, it was like the food was getting stuck in her mouth. She would paw her face like she was trying to get it out. She also just laid around all day.I knew it was the end of the line for her. So the other day I bought a cage for her to go in when we went to the vet. I thought it was going to be hard to get her in the cage, that was no trouble, but she cried all the way to the vet. When the vet looked at her, she said it was cancer. I had a feeling it was something like that cause the right side of her face was all swollen. It felt like a rock. Doctor said two choices, operation and there was no guarantee, or put her to sleep. I knew what had to be done. It was really hard to do, but I look at it like this, she had a 18 year good run.
It’s funny how I got to know Harvey. I live in a co-opt, there used to be a lot of wild cats around. The lady that lived upstairs from me used to feed them. One night I hear a cat outside my door. I looked outside and saw a small cat. It was winter time and the cat was hungry, so I gave her some bologna. The next night she was back, so I kept on feeding her. Next thing you know she’s a indoor-outdoor cat. Then the co-opt didn’t want the cats around so they set up traps for them. Little did I know there was a cat lover in the building that set his own traps. When he caught them he sent them to the animal shelter. They didn’t take Harvey cause she was too old. So he put her picture in the co-opt news letter. I got in contact with him and got Harvey back now as an indoor cat.
It’s funny how the rolls reversed over the years. When Harvey was an outside cat, I would watch her from the inside. Over the years Harvey would wait for me by the window when I came home from work.
Harvey would jump on the bed and sleep on the bed by me. When Harvey wasn’t feeling well I would lay down on the floor by her.
Harvey “In The House” Mandel, RIP