Good Bye Miss Tula

Nick and I moved to Massachusetts in 2003 and I was so excited we had an apartment where we could finally have a pet.

It took awhile, but we found a shelter where kittens were available, and that is where we found our Tula.

She was only ½ a pound when we adopted her and had been found caught in the woods in a trap, so she was missing the fur on her back paw. Nick picked her up and she instantly crawled into the hood of his sweatshirt. I took her out and she did it again. It was love.

A few weeks later, we couldn’t find her in our apartment. Nick came to the conclusion that somehow she must have ran out the door when I wasn’t paying attention, then up the stairs and out the front door of our apartment complex (really not possible…) but we had no other explanation. We went out and when we came back I figured she would just be there (she wasn’t). I was in the bathroom crying about it and Nick started yelling “Tula?? Tula??” I can hear her crying Crystal!! Turns out, she had bit a hole in the bottom of the couch and was resting comfortable in the arm of said couch. Ah, the joys of being a pet owner.

Probably my favorite story is when Nick called me when I was out at dinner to say "I think I broke Tula." When I asked him what happened, he said 'I ran at her like a velociraptor and I think I scared her." I get home and basically she's terrified and won't let anyone near her. I coaxed her out of a corner and a few days later she was back to her friendly self. Nick made sure to never scare her like that again!

We noticed Tula had trouble walking about a month ago and took her to the vet. Unfortunately they were unable to tell us what was wrong and we were given some Cosequin tablets to see if she would improve. In the last few weeks she became progressively worse and when she started losing her bowels, we knew it was time to let her go. It was a very tough decision, but I know that she was ready. She had a wonderful life with us for many years and as my brother said, she is now “running over the rainbow bridge with Oslo.” We let her say good bye to Dexter who loved to lick her like crazy, and she would just sit back and take it. Nick kissed her when we said goodbye and said “eat lots because I know that’s exactly what you want to do.” (she loved her food more than anything!)

Good bye sweet girl, you will be so very missed.