- Joined
- Mar 25, 2014
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Last Monday, my husband and I took Leo, our 16 and a half year old cat to the vet, as we had noticed him becoming finicky with food and at times drooling. Although he was still running, playing, and eating, we wanted to make sure everything was okay. We didn't think it would be anything much as we had just done a senior check-up months ago with a clean bill of health.
Leo is an active cat, and has been just an amazing part of our family. I bought him right out of college from the humane society. He lived with me in MN and then I moved to CA-drove him with me. I lived in CA throughout my twenties and in 6 different apartments with a slew of roommates that he got used to. He was my rock, my forever friend. Apartments, friends, boyfriends, and jobs came and went, but Leo was always there waiting for me to get home from work. We even had cat language that of course drove one of my roommates crazy. Then, I got married on 8-6-07. Hubby moved in with me and in turn was his first pet roomie. It wasn't easy at first, but they grew to love each other. We were now a family of three. We moved back to MN (drove back with Leo in the back seat) in 2009, lived in a few more apartments and finally settled into our new home which Leo loved. He especially loved the warm summer sun and would sit on the deck with us napping. He loved to run up and down the stairs, play chase and hide-and-go-seek. It was always hours of fun! This cat throughout all his moves never went outside of his litter box. He adjusted so well to new places and was fine travelling cross-country.
However, one of his least favorite places was the vet's office. So last Monday was not fun. The doctor thought it could be cancer or possibly an abrasion. What? One was way worse than the other. To determine this, she did a biopsy. We left him there and returned a few hours later. He wasn't happy, but I was happy to have him back at home. That left 3-5 days to wait for the results. Those days killed me. We got the call on Thursday-squamous cell carcinoma. Why do cats need to get this cancer? How long did we have left? So many unanswered questions. That's when I found this site and started to read others' stories about how they knew when it was time as we opted not to do cancer treatments. Our ultimate goal was to keep him free from pain. This leads up to today, Tuesday, March 25 at 3:30. The vet and vet tech arrived at our home. It wasn't easy, one of the hardest things I've ever done. His howls and growls and screams will haunt me all my days, but in the end it was the right thing to do and the right time as he couldn't eat and was losing weight rapidly. It wasn't the same Leo as we knew before. We chose to do it at our home as we didn't want his last moments to be a drive to the place he hated most. We're both glad it went this way and I wouldn't have known about this option unless I had read others' stories. So thank you for the comfort. May Leo run free until we meet again. Forever family, forever a friend, and forever with me. I love that cat!