What a crappy month. On Friday 16 October, we lost our youngest cat, Nietzsche. Now, we've lost our remaining girl, Cleopatra (Cleo). In less that two weeks, Cleo succumbed to stomach cancer on Thursday, 29 October.

Nietzsche's heart simply filled with fluid too quickly for us to keep up with. When this problem started, back in June, the vet drained a huge amount of fluid from around his heart, and told us it would likely come back - either fairly quickly, or somewhat slowly. Is was some months before it came back - close to the 3½ months. Then, again, it came back in several months, and was the final straw. The fluid around his heart had gotten to be so great, and refilled so quickiy, that is was pushing into his lungs. If we had taken him home, he wouldn't had make it through the night. Even in the hyerbaric chamber, he was confused and disoriented, as much oxygen wasn't reaaching his brain.

Cleopatra had been having GI problems on and off, even before Nietzsche got sick. Don't get me wrong, cleaning up throw-up is just a fact of being a cat owner. When she was taken to the vet, they told us it was either an irritation in the GI tract, or stomach cancer. The tests to check for cancer definitively are expensive and time consuming, and given Cleo's small sizs, chemotherapy was contraindicated, anyway. So, the recommended tratment for either was corticosteroids. That worked on and off for months, but Cleo was stil ruining carpets and losing weight. Eventually, one morning, we woke to find her vomiting blood and organic material (which was later discovered a piece of a tumor). She has lost so much blood in that one episode that she couldn't stand anymore, and aimply fell over.

Unlike when we lost Akoria last March(she went on her own at home), we had to make the decision to euthanize Nietzsche and Cleo. It was two of the hardest moments my life, and of my family's. We decided to bring Tasha with us to let her say goodbye, too, but Lisa took Tasha out during thr procedure. They came in once more afterwards to say one last good bue, and to share stories about the friends and loved ones we cared for and who cared for us for so long. But how do you tell an eight year old little girl that you have to put her two favorite cats to sleep?

At this point, we still have one cat left, Soren. It's hard to go from four cats to one in the span of 18 months - especially with the last two going a week and a half apart. Poor Soren, who has always dealt with separation anexity, has been an emotional basketcase - just like us.
We've thought about getting a few kittens, for company for Soren, to help ease the void in our lives, and to honor the memory of our fallen feline companions - but I don't knoe if that's the right thing to do, or not. Our vets have made some recommendations, but right now, we're focusing on what we have lost, before rushing hastily into the wrong decision.

Thank you for taking the time to me rant!