The saga of Meatloaf

This is Meatloaf, a wonderful stray that adopted himself upon my girlfriend and her family about 6-ish years ago back in San Diego. After he showed up a few times to jack food from their cat, Squiddy, this bold cat literally was found sleeping on their couch after he had basically squatted in their RV for a untold amount of time.

He instantly bonded with my GF and ever since he became a cherished family member, so we did what anybody in this situation would do and took him to the vet and made sure he wasn't chipped and got him looked at which was when we learned that he was FIV positive. Our other cats never really clicked with him, we think the fiv made him smell weird to them.

Easily the cuddliest cat any of us had ever met, he moved right in, got all his pertinent shots and became our beloved family member. He loved jumping into your lap and staying there until your legs went numb, and falling asleep flat on his face and snoring in the form that earned him his eventual name: Meatloaf

Shortly after being diagnosed we had another scare and took him to the vet again learning he had pancreatitis and less than a year after he was diagnosed diabetic. The vet told us how difficult it would be and we learned how to take care of him with this new ailment and Meatloaf took to it like a champ. For a previous stray learning how to eat at timed intervals and get 2 shots a day he did great.

The best morning face

We eventually left So Cal and moved to Colorado; a thousand mile drive in the summer heat with a diabetic cat and 2 other cats. We do not recommend it. He made it through some scary moments and settled in Colorado like nothing happened.

We loved and doted on him at every turn. He was always ready to hop in your lap, or curl up by your face, turn his engine over and lay with you as long as you could take it. When he wasn't in your lap, he was laying on our balcony in the sun; or any sunbeam coming thru a window, for that matter.

A little over three weeks ago (near the end of August) we ended up taking Meatloaf to the vet because his breathing was labored, we assumed it was from the wildfires, and the vet diagnosed him with feline asthma. This is a problem as the treatment for asthma is steroids, and they make diabetes problematic. Not long after this video Meatloaf's breathing became much worse. We kept up with the inhaler, but shortly after he stopped eating and drinking so we started trying to give him water with a medicine dropper. It rapidly became apparent he wanted nothing to do with it. He was ready.

So not long after we made the decision that hurt the most. We had a vet come to our house and say goodbye while our loaf kitty laid in the sun on the deck, surrounded by family. He was, and still is, loved intensely by all of us and we miss him so much that it hurts. We miss you Loaf, we hope you're breathing easy now, we love you buddy.
If anyone reading this wants to see better pics of Loaf, I'll link my gf's insta. She takes better photos than I do.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFaR8rEHKXW/?igshid=u6rb491cqnsw