Bad News

   Colby wasn't eating his dry food. In fact he wasn't eating much of anything. Normally he plows through his meal and then goes looking for more. He wasn't doing that now. Something was obviously wrong.

   We took him to the vet. He was six months early for his checkup,but something like this can't wait. We brought him and and they checked him out. He was fine except that he had lost a lot of weight. They took some samples to send out to the lab. The vet was worried because he had noticed a mass on a small ultrasound while getting a urine sample. They wanted him to come in for a more complete ultrasound.

  The blood work came back. All normal except for the pancreatic enzymes. Maybe it was just some pancreatitis. I wasn't so sure. I had a sick feeling. It was going to be something worse.

   We brought Colby in for the ultrasound. It was not good news. There was a lot of fluid in the abdomen around the intestines and a spot on the liver. It was lymphoma. In other words,cancer. Also not curable. They took a sample of fluid for pathology to get a definite diagnosis.

    The results came back today. It is definitely lymphoma. Even worse it is the large cell lymphoma which is the most aggressive kind. The small cell can be controlled with prednisone and cats can live good lives for a year or two. The large cell can be treated, but it only extends life by about six months or so. The prognosis is about a month with no treatment and two month with prednisone. 

   We are going to lose our sweet Colby, soon. The day I found out I cried. All day. Colby was in excellent health all his life. Why now and why him? He is such a good cat. Such a pure soul. There is something special about him. I knew it the first time I saw his picture on the rescue group website. I knew I wanted him with me. I knew we would be the best family for him. 

  Also why did I have to go thought nursing a cat with cancer again. We'd lost our precious Nim to lymphoma. It was hard. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. 

  Those are fruitless questions of course. The answer is that Colby had finished his time on earth and it is nearing time for him to go back to where he came from. I had stewardship of him for a time and my stewardship is coming to an end. People may wonder what the use of religious faith is. It's for times like this. If Heavenly Father knows the sparrows that fall to the ground,He also knows Colby and how much he means to us. 

  C and I discussed our plan for Colby's care. Knowing that we had not done things right with Nim, we resolved to do better. We decided the best thing to do was to keep him comfortable. That meant we would give him nausea medicine and something to help with his appetite. Colby hates taking pills so we may not be able to do prednisone, although we have not ruled it out if it will make him comfortable.

  I asked a friend's dad to make a wooden box for us. He made us one before and the ashes of our other two beloved cats Ary and Nim are inside it. 

   All we can do  is wait now. Wait and show Colby as much love as we can. It's very hard, but C and I have each other for support and also out good pet lover friends. We'll get through this.