Jane - What a wonderful tribute to an extraordinary cat. And it sounds like she had extraordinary owners. All my FeLV cats have brought something special to my life & I have never regretted keeping any of them, no matter how much heartbreak I have had to go through. One day your memories of her will only make you smile. Beth Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
-----Original Message----- From: Jane Lyons <j.ly...@mindspring.com> Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 10:11:52 To: <felvtalk@felineleukemia.org> Subject: [Felvtalk] MeMe 2006-3-32010 I sent this message yesterday with a photo of MeMe but it did not go through the list. There are two photos of her on my photo webpage. The one on the bottom right is the best of the two (if anyone wants to see her face) Say two of the grieving process is not any better. Jane photos http://digitalimagecafe.com/member_profile.asp?member=memex2 ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************ Last night the vet came at 10:00 to put MeMe to sleep. I had her for three years and two days and I am grateful for each and everyone of those days. She was an extraordinary cat. She was highly symptomatic with Felv when we adopted her but we managed to get her to a place of almost normalcy for almost three years and up until the last few months she lived a full and happy life. She had been in steady decline since mid December and the quality of her life had diminished drastically. She stopped eating three days ago and yesterday morning she could not jump down from the kitchen countertop. It was at that moment that I knew I had to make the call. Four weeks ago she had a complete blood work up which turned out to be completely normal. The vet was astonished when he called me with her report. He said he had been afraid to read it because he didn't want to call me with , what he was sure, would be a bad report. I knew, despite the numbers that she was not well. We had given her a round of Clavamox to help her stomatitis and she developed diarrhea that I could not get rid of despite homeopathy and Forti-Flora that had worked before. We did an ultra sound of her digestive tract which proved to be "inconclusive'' and yet she continued to get sicker. Yesterday my husband found a mass behind her right ear that was enormous. It had not been there a few weeks ago but I suspect her lymphatic system has been under assault since mid December when I began to see changes in her coat and her energy and then her behavior. Through it all, she continued to seek us out to sit in our laps and to sleep in our bed. She never hid or indicated that she wanted to be alone. This weekend I walked into the front hall to find her lying between our two Scotties in a pool of sunlight. As sick and as vulnerable as she was, she trusted them and us. She was a strong and trusting and courageous animal who could scale 40' trees with more agility than a squirrel. She was fearless and when we discovered that she was positive and could not go out she adapted to her cat jacket and spent all her days outside or going for walks with the dogs. She led the pack with her tail straight up and an occasional detour to climb a tree (with her 20' retractable leash). I could go on forever. She was just too wonderful. I have one positive thing to report. She had stomatitis (inflamed and sore gums) which we treated with antibiotics and homeopathy and a topical spray. Nothing worked for long. I discovered over this past month that the pro-biotic I was using for her diarrhea helped her mouth enormously. I was mixing Forti-Flora in her food twice a day for weeks and last week I noticed that her mouth was almost normal. For anyone dealing with stomatitis you might try a probiotic. So dear friends I think that all of us who are loving these endearing, loving creatures can learn a lot from their nobility and grace. MeMe was a gift and a life lesson to me. She has taught me so much and while she is not sitting in my lap as I type (and cry) she is deeply imbedded in my heart and will always be. Bless all of you who are living and learning from these very special beings love Jane _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
