I just wanted to share our story because I think it is quite original and it may help other readers. Also it helps our grieving at this time.
Kitty adopted us one hot Summer night in Almeria (south of Spain) in 2003, he had been a street cat for a little less than a year and was fighting to find food and survive. We started feeding him occasionally and one day he followed us home and decided to stay with us, he never left after that night.
Fast forward, 4 years later in 2007, we moved to Colorado in the US. Kitty, the Mediterranean cat had crossed the ocean with us and was ready for a new life. A very happy life, going in and out whenever he wanted, climbing trees, taking walks around the block with us, laying in front of the heater on cold winter nights…
Fast forward again to 2015, he started showing symptoms of an upper respiratory infection (URI). We started a long process of treatments with antibiotics (cefovecin, azithromycin, neomycin, doxycline…), lysine, nose drops, humidifiers, we even got rid of the carpet thinking it was maybe an allergy... Sometimes the symptoms would go away, but they would return again. He looked healthy otherwise and would play and jump like a young cat.
Then in October 2016 he started being picky with the food, sometimes he would not eat, we thought it was because of the nose congestion. We would give him canned food and treats and he seemed to recover his appetite. Even though he was an outdoor cat, he was never super active, he would spend his winter days lying in front of the heater (yes, he was Mediterranean after all!). But I had noticed he was more lethargic than before and he had lost a pound. We took him a total of 10 times to the vet during this last year, we even changed vets because we could not understand why his URI wouldn’t get better. They kept prescribing him antibiotics. One day in May 2017 we discover he had really bad diarrhea, again back to the vet, more antibiotics. But he had got from 10 pounds to about 7 pounds in just a couple of months, so we knew something was really wrong. He had had blood tests and all looked normal, even x-rays. I had searched all over the internet, mainly for URI remedies and symptoms, but it never occurred to me that could be something else more serious.
One day in June 2017 we were walking Kitty around the block (as we did for the last 10 years), and he could not follow us, he was too weak. We immediately took him to the emergency care at CSU (Colorado State University), they gave him fluids, they performed a blood test, x-rays, ultrasounds, everything... We wished we had taken him there before, but we did not know they also treated small animals. The diagnosis: lymphoma and the doctor thought it was large cell lymphoma, which is the most aggressive type. He had enlarged lymph nodes on his throat area and also back of the legs. He had hidden it very well from us. We were devastated and upset with all the other vets we had gone to in the area for not having any clue about what was wrong with him, I guess this happens a lot after reading many other posts. I also wished I had known about this site, there is a lot of good information. Anyway, still with all the tests they did at CSU none was conclusive, meaning they would have to do a biopsy to confirm it, but we were afraid of the anesthesia and Kitty not being able to survive it. They told us we had the option to get chemotherapy or start with prednisolone to see if that eased the symptoms. We decided the prednisolone as it was easier to administer and we would see if there were any improvements. In cases of large cell lymphoma, the prognosis is only 2-4 months if the cat responds well to it, so it did not make any sense to us to put him through all the stress if it was already in a late stage. He was gaining weight after a week into the prednisolone and acting better, we thought maybe that was a good sign.
On this past Sunday night he got in bed with us for the last time, 3 weeks after he was diagnosed…we didn’t know that though. It seemed like a regular night. Kitty woke me up in the night and gave a big sigh, like it was too much to keep going on. We looked at each other one last time for several minutes, it seemed, his big green eyes, so pretty... I thought myself that maybe to keep going was too much for him. But being tired I slipped back into the bed. Later that night, around 5am or so (the time he always went on patrol outside), I heard Kitty give an unusual and special “Big Meow”, like saying, “Good bye” or “Thank You” for a life well lived. I petted him one last time (he wanted me to acknowledge that I had heard him) on the head and he left. I heard his cat door and he went to the back yard. The next morning Mike and I woke up late. The food dish was well eaten but it was late and he was not in his favorite sleeping spot in the backyard. I told Mike I thought Kitty had indeed said “goodbye” the night before. When I was growing up I had heard that cats that were sick went away to die in peace, could this be the case? We searched the yard, ours and others. The house, no Kitty. We called, even clicked the scissors to tell him there was raw chicken. It always worked before, but not this time. That was Monday morning. We stayed home that day, went out for a bike ride and returned hoping he would be back. But he was not. We searched his favorite areas, nothing. We talked to the neighbors searched their yards, still nothing. Tuesday, again we did the same. We knew that he left us, but what had happened? It wasn’t till Wednesday morning, that I said, “What about the stream about 100 meters from our home?” We thought that it was beyond his normal patrol, that he would not be there. Mike had searched there already on his bike, looking mostly into the bushes.
So we started our search again and finally, we found his remains. From what we could tell he had found a quiet spot along the stream, cool, with birds singing and the sounds of children playing, he loved the sound of their voices. “He knew it was his time…” He had found his final place, taken his last patrol. He was always free till the last minute, yes some cats do go away to die and rest when the time is up.
We had commented to the doctor, that if he could, he would tell us what he wanted and how he should be treated for cancer, and he did. We think that he had the opportunity to make that choice. We are happy for him but sad for us. No stranger had to come and give him a drug to remove his suffering. He took the way of the wild cat that he was, at least in his heart. He was born in the wild along the beaches of southern Spain on a cold winter’s night and returned home on a hot summer’s day, on his Last Patrol.
Thanks for reading, as my tears fall. I had to tell his story, just as the rhyme of the ancient mariner…
Kitty adopted us one hot Summer night in Almeria (south of Spain) in 2003, he had been a street cat for a little less than a year and was fighting to find food and survive. We started feeding him occasionally and one day he followed us home and decided to stay with us, he never left after that night.
Fast forward, 4 years later in 2007, we moved to Colorado in the US. Kitty, the Mediterranean cat had crossed the ocean with us and was ready for a new life. A very happy life, going in and out whenever he wanted, climbing trees, taking walks around the block with us, laying in front of the heater on cold winter nights…
Fast forward again to 2015, he started showing symptoms of an upper respiratory infection (URI). We started a long process of treatments with antibiotics (cefovecin, azithromycin, neomycin, doxycline…), lysine, nose drops, humidifiers, we even got rid of the carpet thinking it was maybe an allergy... Sometimes the symptoms would go away, but they would return again. He looked healthy otherwise and would play and jump like a young cat.
Then in October 2016 he started being picky with the food, sometimes he would not eat, we thought it was because of the nose congestion. We would give him canned food and treats and he seemed to recover his appetite. Even though he was an outdoor cat, he was never super active, he would spend his winter days lying in front of the heater (yes, he was Mediterranean after all!). But I had noticed he was more lethargic than before and he had lost a pound. We took him a total of 10 times to the vet during this last year, we even changed vets because we could not understand why his URI wouldn’t get better. They kept prescribing him antibiotics. One day in May 2017 we discover he had really bad diarrhea, again back to the vet, more antibiotics. But he had got from 10 pounds to about 7 pounds in just a couple of months, so we knew something was really wrong. He had had blood tests and all looked normal, even x-rays. I had searched all over the internet, mainly for URI remedies and symptoms, but it never occurred to me that could be something else more serious.
One day in June 2017 we were walking Kitty around the block (as we did for the last 10 years), and he could not follow us, he was too weak. We immediately took him to the emergency care at CSU (Colorado State University), they gave him fluids, they performed a blood test, x-rays, ultrasounds, everything... We wished we had taken him there before, but we did not know they also treated small animals. The diagnosis: lymphoma and the doctor thought it was large cell lymphoma, which is the most aggressive type. He had enlarged lymph nodes on his throat area and also back of the legs. He had hidden it very well from us. We were devastated and upset with all the other vets we had gone to in the area for not having any clue about what was wrong with him, I guess this happens a lot after reading many other posts. I also wished I had known about this site, there is a lot of good information. Anyway, still with all the tests they did at CSU none was conclusive, meaning they would have to do a biopsy to confirm it, but we were afraid of the anesthesia and Kitty not being able to survive it. They told us we had the option to get chemotherapy or start with prednisolone to see if that eased the symptoms. We decided the prednisolone as it was easier to administer and we would see if there were any improvements. In cases of large cell lymphoma, the prognosis is only 2-4 months if the cat responds well to it, so it did not make any sense to us to put him through all the stress if it was already in a late stage. He was gaining weight after a week into the prednisolone and acting better, we thought maybe that was a good sign.
On this past Sunday night he got in bed with us for the last time, 3 weeks after he was diagnosed…we didn’t know that though. It seemed like a regular night. Kitty woke me up in the night and gave a big sigh, like it was too much to keep going on. We looked at each other one last time for several minutes, it seemed, his big green eyes, so pretty... I thought myself that maybe to keep going was too much for him. But being tired I slipped back into the bed. Later that night, around 5am or so (the time he always went on patrol outside), I heard Kitty give an unusual and special “Big Meow”, like saying, “Good bye” or “Thank You” for a life well lived. I petted him one last time (he wanted me to acknowledge that I had heard him) on the head and he left. I heard his cat door and he went to the back yard. The next morning Mike and I woke up late. The food dish was well eaten but it was late and he was not in his favorite sleeping spot in the backyard. I told Mike I thought Kitty had indeed said “goodbye” the night before. When I was growing up I had heard that cats that were sick went away to die in peace, could this be the case? We searched the yard, ours and others. The house, no Kitty. We called, even clicked the scissors to tell him there was raw chicken. It always worked before, but not this time. That was Monday morning. We stayed home that day, went out for a bike ride and returned hoping he would be back. But he was not. We searched his favorite areas, nothing. We talked to the neighbors searched their yards, still nothing. Tuesday, again we did the same. We knew that he left us, but what had happened? It wasn’t till Wednesday morning, that I said, “What about the stream about 100 meters from our home?” We thought that it was beyond his normal patrol, that he would not be there. Mike had searched there already on his bike, looking mostly into the bushes.
So we started our search again and finally, we found his remains. From what we could tell he had found a quiet spot along the stream, cool, with birds singing and the sounds of children playing, he loved the sound of their voices. “He knew it was his time…” He had found his final place, taken his last patrol. He was always free till the last minute, yes some cats do go away to die and rest when the time is up.
We had commented to the doctor, that if he could, he would tell us what he wanted and how he should be treated for cancer, and he did. We think that he had the opportunity to make that choice. We are happy for him but sad for us. No stranger had to come and give him a drug to remove his suffering. He took the way of the wild cat that he was, at least in his heart. He was born in the wild along the beaches of southern Spain on a cold winter’s night and returned home on a hot summer’s day, on his Last Patrol.
Thanks for reading, as my tears fall. I had to tell his story, just as the rhyme of the ancient mariner…
