Death of Peppino
Thursday, May 19th, 2022
Peppino is a name, a diminutive of Giuseppe, just like Joe is a diminutive of Joseph. Peppino was 16 years old which would be a short life for a person but a fairly long life for a cat.
Laura has had him since he was a kitten and of course my relationship with Peppino has been much more brief, about 3 1/2 years. He was kind of emotionally needy I would say. If I would let him he would spend almost every waking hour on my lap but obviously that wouldn’t work for me. At least he did finally learn that he could stay on my lap longer if he didn’t use his claws to adjust his position. He was doing damage to my jeans.
So while I’d say he was not the smartest cat that I’ve known, he was capable of learning. He had been pretty healthy until recently. At about 6 weeks ago he no longer could jump up enough to get on my lap when I was sitting down so I would give him an assist.
Then about 3 weeks ago things changed radically. He could barely walk and when he did he didn’t seem to be able to see obstacles. He would bump into walls and get stuck in narrow spaces. Laura took him to the vet a couple of times and there was no clear reason for his decline but in the end it was something obviously neurological. So reluctantly about 2 weeks ago Laura asked the vet to come to the house to provide euthanasia for Peppino. Laura has been very sad but is recovering.
May 19th, 2022 at 7:36 pm
Please give Laura my deep condolence. I have two 16 year old cats whose presence in my life give me great happiness.
Peppino was a beautiful guy and I am so sad he is gone. Cats have a lot of personality traits that dogs and other pets do not have, including both great independence and a deep connection. I had Covid for 10 days and my cats took turns lying next to me…they seemed to be splitting a shift of watching over me.
I talked with my 8 year old grandson recently and mentioned that I wanted both my cats and me to be alive and well in 10 years. He looked at me with great compassion and told me that cats did not usually live that long, and that I might be alive but I would have to stay really healthy to do that. You have to love the truth that children know. Laura is in my heart.
August 24th, 2022 at 2:26 pm
Hi Joy, I apologize for the very late response. Tell your grandson to keep telling the truth. Of course he will find at times that he needs to be “diplomatic” in the way he tells it but that’s a part of acquiring wisdom. A 10 day covid must have been pretty unpleasant. I had covid very briefly but that was after three doses of the vaccine and I was almost asymptomatic. So far Laura has never gotten covid and she now has had the 4th shot. I’m not sure if I’m going to continue the blog. It’s been interesting but I don’t have much more to say that’s interesting right now.
Joe
May 21st, 2022 at 5:37 pm
Loving all your posts, Joe. You help us to keep “ living” and loving Italy! So sorry about Peppino. What a gorgeous cat and such beautiful markings! Tabbies are our favorites, and we now refer to ourselves as two old ones
Condolences to Laura. Our Stan is 11…
Keep writing! Best, Helen and Abby
August 24th, 2022 at 2:20 pm
Hi Helen and Abby. I apologize for the very late response. I’m not sure if I will keep writing. It seems like I’ve said just about everything that is really interesting. I’ve been writing this blog for over 11 years now. Certainly my writing skills have improved and I’ve enjoyed sharing thoughts and experiences with others but the well is running dry.
Joe