There is a new Ben! « Margali's Weblog

There is a new Ben!

This is my dutch Ben ….

I live in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. When I lost my Ben on november 19, and announced this on dutch and american groups that I am a member of, I received many emails. One of them was sent by Monika who told me she is a volunteer in a shelter in Seattle of all places! Seattle is the city that I consider my 2nd home, where I used to live for a while in the early seventies, and where my sister has been living for more than 30 years.

My Ben was a very wise and loving cat, tough as nails, who fought so hard to stay alive and be with me and his other feline friends. Monika offered to name one of the kitties in the shelter after Ben as a gesture to us, and also in the hope that the recipient of Ben’s name would quickly find a good and loving new home.

Good Bens are very hard to find, but after searching for a few weeks she finally found him:

newben

and this is now the american Ben.

Monika told me: “he has been in the shelter for 2 months now. I knew him back when he was first at the shelter and thought he’d been adopted, but actually he’d been very sick and been in the clinic. He’s painfully shy and scared, but very sweet and there isn’t a mean bone in his body. He’s got some flame-point Siamese in him. I know he doesn’t look like your Ben, but this is guy who could really use the positive energy of Ben’s name”.

The original Ben was born in Belgium on february 2, 1998. He was a Maine Coon and his official name was Two Coon Junction Eagle. His belgian-american breeders decided to move back to the USA, and they found Ben a new home with me in Amsterdam. I got him when he was 8 months old. He was beautiful, sweet, very laid back, and very sensitive. His wise eyes were allways following me. He was instantly intrigued by everything that moved.

He loved to play with his feline friend Joris. Madame Coco hated him at first sight, and would hiss at Ben and slap him whenever she could. His answer was to lie down on his side, and look away (“if I don’t see you, you’re not there!”). Or he would put his big paw on her head and keep her at a distanceL his legs were so long that she couldn’t reach him. She gave up on hating him after two years, and they became quite comfortable with each other.

Ben allways was a lousy eater, and in 2002 I found out he had a kidney problem. He was only 4 years old, and I was so sad. To find information and help I joined the CRF Support group, and later the FAF (Feline Assisted Feeding) group. And the struggle began. He would have many crises, sometimes quite scary, but with many good times in between. I learned, and shared what I learned by creating a very simple and basic dutch website about CRF.

I watched his quality of life like a hawk, several times I reached a point where I wondered if I should help him cross over to a life without pain and discomfort. And every time he bounced back. Until the last time, when we found out through tests that he could not get better.

I decided not to wait until the disease would kill him, but to let him go with dignity. Wise Ben that he was, he knew at least a week sooner than me that it was time. His eyes were watching me those last days, while he rested comfortably on his bed. He waited until I knew, and told him I would take care of him. He said goodbye that last night by crawling in bed with me to snuggle and cuddle. A few hours later he went on to another life, very peacefully and quietly. It was done, it was enough, it had been a full and complete life. He was my teacher, he was and is my Ben.