Wedding and Portrait Photography: Sissy Lee Gonzales

On Monday 7/19/10 we had to say goodbye to member of our family. Sissy (our pet cat), better known to everyone who knew her as Sisser, was put to sleep due to feline diabetes at the age of (human) 9 years, (cat) 63 years old. I did not know cats could get diabetes but as the vet informed me it is more common then you think.
Sisser ended her life as she started it, as a loving cat who liked to be petted. It was the the 6 1/2 years in between that people have heard stories about. For the first 6 months of Sisser's life she was a very playful kitten. She had a tigger doll that she would fight with and she would always want to play with, our other older cat, Chrissy (named for Chrissy Snow on Three's Company and the best cat in the world). Then at 6 months Sisser was spayed and a new Sisser came out to play.
Now remember I love my Sisser but from that point on, until about a few years ago, she was a BITCH. Very mean to anyone she knew. She was scared of everything, noises, the doorbell, strangers, the outside world, birds, bugs, anything and everything. What she was not afraid of was her family. She would attack for no reason. You could be walking down the hall, or into a bedroom and she would attack you, not in a playful way, but wanting and most times drawing blood. We learned to deal with her anger outburst. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get her into anger management but she refused. You would walk into a room and you would hear a cat growling. That's when you had to be ready because she might attack.
Over the years we had the "Sisser Rules". Rule #1. No one talks about the Sisser Rules, #2. only pet her if she comes to you and rubs on you first, #3. only pet her head (she hated to be petted on her back) and #4. don't and I repeat DON'T put your face close to her. Rule number four was broke by me many times and I would wear the marks of Sisser. Needless to say we never became close to Sisser due to her anger. But she was our pet and a part of the family and you don't get ride of family. She was able be nice, But....you always had to have your guard up.
Then about 2 years ago Sisser started to sleep in our beds without incident. Her and Crissy got along better (Chrissy was the alpha cat). You could actually pet Sisser and she would sit next to you without growling the whole time. Everything was good most of the time, the anger would still come out be at lesser frequencies. About 8 months after Sisser's big change Chrissy passed away and Sisser became the only cat in the house. This is the time we all became closer to Sisser. She was around us more, she would hangout with the boys as they played video games or watched TV. She would go outside and hangout on the patio (but the sliding door had to remain open at all times). She would follow everyone around and rub on our legs. She would greet us as we walked in the door or come when she was called.
About three months ago I noticed that she stopped eating for a few days and spent most of the time sleeping. I figured that she had a cold or just didn't feel good. After those few days she seemed fine again but was eating more. As time went on she also started drinking more water. Of course I noticed the amount of waste in her litter box had increased to a crazy amount. She also started to lose weight (a lot of weight) and was sleeping more then normal. That's when she was discovered to have diabetes.
A lot of people wondered why we kept her for all those years but for us we are very happy that she became a part of our family. For the most part she was a good, mean, cat.


                                  Sisser checking out what's going on outside this past Christmas.