Amber Day

Amber passed away yesterday at the amazing age of 19 years 7 months.

Anna and I adopted Amber on March 1, 2005 from a crazy cat lady we found on Craigslist. She and her sister, Sydney, joined forces in the house with Booty and Kitty. Months later, Anna moved out with Kitty and Sydney, while Booty and Amber remained behind.

Amber was always Booty's punching bag -- Booty would deign to let Amber sleep next to her, but got very territorial if Amber tried for the affection of Booty's humans. Once Booty died in 2017, Amber became much happier as the lone cat. (Kitty and Sydney died in the intervening years as well, so Amber TRULY was the last one standing).

Amber was not a fan of kids until around 2019 when she became absolutely deaf. Then she would peacefully lie on the couch as children bounced from cushion to cushion or the vacuum cleaner drove by below her. She was always a sucker for a warm blanket and spent almost every afternoon napping on the couch with Rebecca.

The osteoarthritis in her back legs made it difficult to get around on a good day and last week, she finally got to the point where her front legs weren't working all that well either. We suspect that she may have had a mini-stroke of some kind because by the weekend, she wouldn't use her legs and couldn't focus her eyesight on any movement. We gave her a final bath (she couldn't clean the litter off her paws anymore) and kept her comfortable for the remainder of her days, holding the water bowl right up under her face to get her to drink.

Amber died peacefully overnight on one of her favourite wool blankets. Rest in peace, kitty!