RIP Bagpuss, My Beautiful Boy

Today has been one of the hardest days of my life; we had to have our Beautiful Bagpuss put to sleep.  Baggy was taken ill over the weekend with a Blocked Bladder so the Vets had kept him in to give him some fluids, flush out his system, and some antibiotics.  He was very impressed with the collar or catheter they had to put on him, but he recovered well from the blockage.  He was looking much better yesterday, and they were just keeping him in for observation to make sure that he had eaten and drank something before they would let him home; we were expecting him to come home this afternoon.

We phoned the Vet this morning to check up on him, and were told that he wasn't very well, had a temperature and low blood pressure, so they were gonna give him more antibiotics and see what was wrong.

The Vet called us this afternoon to say that Bagpuss was a very poorly boy, they had the blockage in his bladder cleared up, but he had developed a blood clot on the spine, so his back legs had gone rigid; they had also found that he had a weak heart.

The blood clot could have been cleared, but the Vet said he would be poorly again in a day or two, and that the long term prognosis wasn't good.  Stewart and I decided that we couldn't let him go through anymore stress or pain, so the kindest thing was to put him to sleep.

I can't believe how much this hurts; Bagpuss was my best friend.  If I was in bed he'd be at the side of me, he'd want lots of petting, and then would settle down and sleep next to me; his deep purring used to send me to sleep.  If I was in the Living Room, he would be on the back of my sofa next to me, he had created his very own dent in the sofa, Baggy's Spot.  I can't believe that i'm never going to see him again, he was only 5 years old, so we thought he'd be with us for so much longer.  We got him 18 months ago, just after my birthday, and he'd been my best friend ever since.

We both loved him very much, Stewart called him 'My Boy' and had to give him some fuss every morning when he got up, or Bagpuss would sulk.  We are going to miss him so much, but he will be in our hearts forever.

Suzi

xxx