Dozer R.I.P.

My big fluffy Ragdoll cat Dozer passed away this morning.

We got him from an amimal shelter in 2002 when he was about seven years old. We discovered him in a cage outside the adult cat room. He hadn’t been brushed regularly, so he was the fluffiest cat I had ever seen. I remember the sign on his cage said “If you pet me I will purr very loud.” We got him out of his cage and started petting him and sure enough, loud purring. Sort of a jackhammer cadence, nothing on the exhale, but loud and slow on the inhale.

We played with him a while and then put him back in his cage, because we hadn’t really planned on getting a cat that day. He just sat there, looking up at us with those big blue eyes of his. We decided we had to take him home.

Dozer was a very mild mannered cat. He slept most of the time, only perking up if the food bowl started to get empty. When I was lying on the couch, reading or watching television, he’d come over climb on my chest where I could pet him. Then he’d pad over to the space between my left side and the back of the couch, where he’d settle down and fall asleep while I petted him some more.

His hair rarely got matted, but when it did, I’d have to cut it out, which he hated. He’d try to make me stop by hissing, swatting me with his paws, and even biting, but it was all an act: He never once broke the skin. He was such a gentle creature.

Lately, he’s been struggling with severe health problems, starting when we came home from work a few weeks ago and found him having a seizure. We took him to the emergency vet, and they couldn’t do much for him, so we took him home to say goodbye. He actually started to get a bit better, so we took him to a vet we used to go to, and he said the problem appeared to be high blood pressure, so we started giving him meds for that.

He seemed to bounce back even more. Some of his personality returned, and he even visited me on the couch one last time.

But by the time of his followup appointment two days ago, he was getting wobbly on his feet and he slept even more than usual. The vet said his blood pressure was now too low, so we eased off of his meds, but when I woke up this morning, he was obviously in some kind of distress. I tried to give him some water, in case he was dehydrated again, but he passed away a minute or two later.

Dozer saw us through a lot, including the ups and downs of consulting employment, some stressful health problems for my wife, and the deaths of my both my parents.

I’m going to miss my fluffy buddy.