Rest In Peace, Kitt.

Early this morning we lost our magnificent Kitt. It was quite sudden, and we suspect a heart attack. Kitt had been on several different medications over the past year, and it was only a matter of time before his little body gave out.

I brought Kitt home from the Toronto Humane Society, where I volunteer with the small domestic animals, socializing them (loving them, really, ultimately, and preparing them for loving homes), to increase the level of care he received. Kitt had some kind of chronic itching; we initially thought it was mites, but over the past year we never nailed it down, putting it down to some kind of developed neurosis. He almost died several times from blood loss, shock, or infection, and at one time last Christmas was missing a band of skin and fur across the back of his neck and shoulders almost an inch square. He lost his ears to his affliction.

Heartfelt thanks go to the staff of the Animal Hospital of High Park, most especially Dr. Jen Thompson. They went above and beyond in their care for Kitt.

Brave Kitt had been as stable as we could expect for the past six months, occasionally having a bout of itching during which he would scratch off his fur and lacerate himself. During these periods we would affix booties of fabric bandaids to his back feet to prevent him from doing further damage. He hated it, and would pull them off, losing the fur on his back legs in the process – otherwise we would have kept the booties on most of the time. He had been scratching again off and on for the past month, so perhaps he was finally weakened to the point where the usual routines would not save him. He was approximately a year and a half old, which for lab mice can be anywhere from middle to old age.

Yesterday afternoon he was his cheerful but nervous self, enjoying a bit of time sitting on my wrist inside my sleeve, just hanging out. I wish I had had him out to play just once more last night before bed.

We love you, and will miss you, Kitt.