I had to let my little fighter go today - she certainly had the right name, sadly it meant we couldnt control her condition the way we would have liked. For those of you who dont know her story, I thought I would tell you about her. I was on holiday last August, fortunately only having days out, when I got a phone call from my vets - generally means they are after help with a cat!! An old man had asked for his cat to be pts, and as he wasn't a client and wanted a home visit, the receptionist questioned him, and apparently he was fed up of her destructiveness, so she got him to agree to let her go to a home if she could find one, and I seem to be the only people my vet knows who help oldies!! Despite being full, I couldnt let this happen, so set up a cage in the front room, and collected her the day after - very nearly didn't get her, as she was hiding, we both searched his kitchen and front room, and she suddenly appeared from nowhere as I was about to leave!! Poor girl was crying loads on teh way to mine, so I was in tears too. He warned me he had never been able to stroke or brush her in the 13 years he had had her, but she wasn't too bad with me, although it was seconds of a job normally, I did get scratches the first couple of days till I learnt to read her though. She was initially a foster, but due to her issues with humans, and me losing PEbbles, I formally adopted her (first cat i have actually 'paid' for), I loved her to bits, and she was happy here, she would even sometimes deign to sit with me, but I did have to have fleecy blanket over me for that one, so never happend in the summer. We did have a health scare last yer, she had an unexplained high fever, so the vet insisted on an FIV/FeLV test, that was a worrying time. Then she had bloods done when i adopted her, and i expressed surprise at them coming back normal (Esp when the vet picked 9.20 on a Sat morning to ring me - not normally good news!!), as I dont normally have 2 healthy cats but the month later she started limping. We tried lots of different meds, but nothing really helped, the only option was a specialist, but didn't want to put her through the trauma of that, so we lived with it for a few months till she had tummy issues, we struggled to find something to help that, so off to the specialist we went, who found spindle cells in her knee, which are never a good sign, the main options are a tumour or chronic inflammation - we did suspect the former, partly cos she is one of mine, and I like to get cats with unusual things to test my vet, and partly cos it hadn't really been going on long enough for chronic inflammation, and various meds hadn't helped. The only surefire way of knowing would have been exploratory surgery, but arthritic hips ruled out treating it, so I decided not to put her through it. Her limp came back more recently, but she refused meds for it, and just hasn't looked happy this week, she stopped purring and was being really picky with her food, so as she had a painful condition that was unmanageable, I made the hard decision to let her go tonight, we had 15 months together, but at least she was pts due to health reasons and not cos someone couldnt be bothered with her anymore. She never really got that good at being fussed, but I showed her as much love as she would allow, and at least she had lots of it at the end of her life, that is why i do it, her last 15 months could have been so much different. When my photobucket account ever works, I shall post pics of my little Tiger, she might not have accepted my love much, but she was loved to bits regardless of her temperament, and will be missed. RIP little one, tell the others I love them, but dont be nasty to them.
