R.I.P.

ZsuZsu didn't make it through the night. When I was a kid and lost my cat, Tootsie, my dad poured cement to mark his grave. I buried ZsuZsu out near him and picked a granite stone as a marker. She was a wonderful cat that got me through some very tough times. A great friend who always listened, never judged and never turned down a cuddle. She will be missed.

ZsuZsu

My cat, ZsuZsu, isn't well. I had to leave her at the vet. There's fluid in her lungs and they have her on oxygen. They're going to start her on a course of antibiotics.
Zsu Zsu is a calico cat. I was still with my ex when we adopted her from Jordann's Auntie Anne. It was after Dad died, but before we were married. She was two at the time (I think). ZsuZsu had been declawed, so she was always an indoor cat.
When we first got her she'd watch us extremely closely like she was assessing us. I feel asleep on the couch once and woke up to find her nose inches from my face: her back legs were on the hardwood floor, her front paws on the couch, she was just staring at me.
When we moved upstairs, to another apartment in the same house, our television room had been added onto the back of the second level of the house, there was two white-framed windows in the red brink, which had been the outside wall. ZsuZsu would sit on the window ledge, in the back right hand corner of the room, to look over the room; by that time it was more like she was watching over us than observing; we had, it would seem, passed inspection.
Whenever she wanted to get up on the couch, or bed, she'd put her front paws on the edge and then take to two half jumps before making the leap. She was so consistent with this that we use to count with her efforts: one, two, threeeeee. Extending the E on the three in congratulations.
When we moved down to the farm ZsuZsu took to it well. She likes looking out the front window at the birds on the hydro lines. She has stopped needing three tries to get up on things, instead she climbs along the old radiant heating that runs along the floor boards, then onto the nightstand then the bed.
She's probably the most affectionate cat I've ever had. She'll bat me on the nose in the middle of the night to get me to give her a cuddle. She also loves to lay with her back tight against my chest and have me rub her chest. She stretches one paw out as far as it can go, then curls it in, then does the same with the other; back and forth between the two.
I'm hoping to bring her home tomorrow but the vet didn't sound too hopeful. It's wait and see, hope and pray at this point.
Get well little ZsuZsu—who's not so very little.