"My little one had a tough Monday & Tuesday that week with just getting motivated to do anything and keep it going. Then on Wednesday she won an award at assembly! She was so psyched! Cloud 9 or higher. She came home so stoked and with so much energy. Then on Friday it happened. Down to the depths we all went.
My husband gets up well before dawn to work out at the gym. He had let Furby out to do his business just like any other day. This day, however, Furby decided to cross the road at the exact wrong time. My husband usually checks the yard for Furby before he goes to the gym and this day was no different. Except he saw a lump in the front yard. Maybe it was a jacket in the yard or maybe it was the neighbor's cat? No. It was Furby. Someone had hit him. My husband knows that there are only a couple cars on our street that drive by our house that early. The teen of one of our neighbors, and the paper person. Furby has crossed the road several times before in the past with no problem, but today was not his day. Most probably it was an accident but the shock, denial and sadness was overwhelming.
My husband came into the bedroom where I was sleeping, and in a voice much more scared, sad and urgent than I’ve heard before, he whispered "Melissa - get up. Furby's dead." Of course I jumped out of bed and began down the stairs, at this point my husband said "Get your shoes".
It was like a nightmare. I'm still in a daze. He was just here sleeping at my feet. Now he's gone forever.
What to do as a parent? Of-course we discussed where Furby went (over the Rainbow Bridge) and that he is always in our hearts and memories. We all discussed what we loved about him and a sweet or funny memory we had of him. He will always be her first cat and have a special place in her heart. For me, I will always miss him too. He was a unique cat. He didn't use the cat box unless he had to (Don’t worry – it’s not as bad as it sounds). He went outside! He was particularity neat and clean. Most of all he was always near me. Keeping me company all day every day. I missed him even more the following week after dropping my daughter at school. I walked through the door and he wasn’t there to greet me with a meow and a rub on my leg then he would follow me downstairs where he would sit near me while I worked. I could look over at he'd be there. I would say "Hey Furby" and he would look up with soft eyes and tilt his head as if to say yes. Sometimes he would do that cat thing where he would throw back his head and make a purr sound nodding as if to say “Hey” back. Here is to Monday, cold and alone without my work buddy.”
I wrote the article above the Sunday after Furby’s passing. It’s been a few weeks now. I wanted to continue with this and make everyone aware of some wonderful things I’ve learned on my family’s journey adjusting to life without our beloved Furby.
We still get up and look for him, and we still look for him when we come home from work and play. We also still think we see him out of the corner of our eyes and my daughter says she still talks to him about her day like she used to.
For me I have been writing in my journal about Furby and have helped my daughter put up a memorial in our house for Furby. She has been working on finding every black cat doll in the house and making her “Pile of Furby”. She has drawn countless pictures of Furby and a little story about him too. She also tells everyone she meets about him and is both happy and sad when she talks about him. She is happy to tell people about him and share how wonderful a pet he was. Sad because she misses holding him while watching TV, telling him about her day and I was surprised to find out that Furby was her guardian and kept her safe from the “monsters” in the house. When he passed she was petrified to be alone. She didn’t want to walk around the house by herself or sleep alone. He was always around her too keeping her safe.
My husband is stoic and won’t really talk about it but he too misses Furby. I’ve caught him looking for Furby a couple times early on, forgetting that Furby wasn’t with us physically anymore.
More deeply we all still have a void where he was. I grew up on a farm and have been lucky enough to have pets for almost my whole life. I still remember all of my cats, dogs, cows, rabbits and so on. You never replace any of your furbabies, just bring new fur babies into yours.
Furby is a spirit in our hearts and from my experience, always will be.
On this journey we did learn so much.
First of all, what do you do with your pets remains now that they have passed?
We had an experience with my dog Pikaboo passing over 4 years ago. While searching for the proper way to help Pikaboo on his journey we found out so much about various services available. This is when we found Rainbow Bridge Pet Crematorium. Rainbow Bridge offers a peaceful place to help you say good bye to your beloved pet.
This helped us when we needed to take care of Furby. Did you know you can’t burry your pet within city limits? More importantly, never burry a pet that has been euthanized. The drug used to peacefully put your pet to rest will put other animals to rest that may dig up the body of your pet and it will leach into the soil too.
In writing this I wanted to bring in a couple specialists to discuss all of the options a pet owner has in how to handle the physical and psychological aspects of loosing your pet.
This will be a 3 week series of articles. The first (this one) week will be from me and the experience of my family. The second will be from Rainbow Bridge Pet Crematorium, and 3rd will be from the Pet Honor Society. We all hope so show you how do deal with loss and resources in our community that offer viable alternatives to your typical resources for your pets.
