Buzhi The Cat

In Commemoration of beloved “Buzhi”

by Elizabeth Moon

She would never “meow” out-loud. Instead, would do so silently. She had a voice but only used it when necessary. Buzhi weighed 5 pounds, ate only one kind of cat food, Friskies liver and chicken. She hated anything else. She routinely clawed the bottom drawer when she wanted food. I always let her because…it was Buzhi! That’s what she did!

I used to comb her every day so her hair wouldn’t matt. She would let me groom her to my heart’s content. I could trim her nails, front and back…she never complained.

Buzhi had feline herpes. It attacked her sinuses, one of her eyes and her mouth. She sneezed all over the house. Once a week, i would go around with a magic eraser scrubbing the walls and floors. Despite all this snot, she never was really sick in all her ten years!

My heart broke the day I realized she was so sick. On the 22nd the vet diagnosed her with pneumonia. I had been syringe feeding her since before Thanksgiving. She first went to the vet on Nov. 21st. I started giving her nose drops with Baytril. Don’t you know, after 10 years of constant sneezing, all that stopped? Amazing! On Saturday Dec. 20th, she was doing so well, she was licking the food from a spoon! I was sure Buzhi was getting better!

The following day, she crashed. She had a nosebleed that lasted until Monday. I took her to the vet again and he diagnosed Buzhi with a chest x-ray. Pneumonia, he said. She had lost more weight. 3.4 pounds was her weight. She had lost 1.6 pounds! The Dr gave her another shot of antibiotic and a shot of steroid. She went home with more canned food (A/D), a high calorie supplement and more nose drops.

In the subsequent days, it was more and more evident that Buzhi was unable to tolerate the feedings but would take water, lots of it. I decided to dilute the A/D to a watery consistency just to get calories in her. She was unable to tolerate the supplement. It took hours to recover from each dose. I was reluctant to put her through that. Then, she refused the watered down A/D. I brought back her plain water. She needed help to get down from the bed. I helped her get back up. She was restless, moving from corner to corner of the bed. I dropped off to sleep for a few minutes and when I awoke, Buzhi was on the pillow next to me as always. She looked like she was sleeping but she was gone, sleeping in the arms of heaven.

I will never forget you my sweet little girlie…you are part of my very heart and my very soul forever!

Rest in Peace, Buzhi; you are now in the arms of our beloved Savior Jesus!