Rest in Peace Gidget

Gidget

My sweet little kitten, Gidget, died yesterday in the veterinarian´s office. I found her Monday morning hiding behind the toilet, soaking wet and covered in dirt. She couldn´t stand up and barely had the strength to meow. He nose and lips were completely white and she was trembling. I left on foot from my house, with her wrapped in an old shirt, hoping that someone would pass me and give me a ride to the nearest large town. After 30 minutes I got a ride, and we arrived in Guatuso an hour later. At the vet´s Gidget only got worse. Her body temperature was so low that it didn´t register on the thermometer. She was so dehydrated that the vet couldn´t find a vein to put fluids in, and her pupils didn´t respond to light. About a hour after we arrived, her heart stopped and she passed away. Her tiny lifeless body lie on the table, with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. The vet believes that she ate a poisonous bug or frog, or a mouse that had been poisoned. By the time I got her to the vet, it was really to late. She was so small and so dehydrated -she barely had a fighting chance. I began crying in vet´s office, and then wandered around town until it was time to take the bus home. The whole time I was trying to swallow my tears. When I got home Piper kept sniffing around like crazy looking for Gidget.

I feel helpless. Gidget had been meowing during the night. And I ignored her because I thought she was just hungry. She had been acting a little weird the night before, but I just assumed it was because I was a day or two late with her deworming meds. Knowing that she spent her last night wet, cold, alone and in pain makes me so sad. I know that logically I couldn´t have saved her, but I feel so culpable.

Gidget is the third pet that I have lost in my time here in Gallo Pinto. A friend told me - ´that life is hard in the campo.´ She is right, life here is hard. I never imagined that during my time in the Peace Corps I would have four pets and loose three of them.