Hello All:
 
It was a *bad* week here at Wyrdhaven.  We lost two of our fuzzies on the
same day, Wednesday, April 19th.
 
Minx was a nearly 9-year old, mostly sable with silver female.  She had
lost one of her eyes very early in life, and she was the last of our
original "Gang of Five".  She died mostly of old age but she did have a
mild case of pneumonia that was partially clogging her lungs (she showed no
signs at all of this, so we didn't know...it was only the autopsy that told
us).  She died in her sleep (a first for any of our kids), on her heating
pad, in her blankets, with a full stomach of Meow Mix (she wouldn't eat
anything else once she hit about 8 1/2, and it was better than starvation)
and Nutrical.  We knew that she could "legitimately" go at any time, and
while we were saddened we weren't too surprised.
 
Rosie, on the other hand, was quite a shock.  Only 4 years old, Rosie was
a dark and shy sable female.  We found her on the floor under one of the
cages, in a position that *looked* like she was simply asleep.  Autopsy
revealed that she had lympatic cancer that had invaded her system and
compromised her immune system.  This in turn led her to becoming infected
and she died, probably quite suddenly, of toxic shock.  As with Minx, she
showed absolutely NO signs that anything was wrong; two days prior to her
death I petted her and played with her a bit, and she seemed quite normal.
She had had adrenal surgery in late '98.
 
It was sheer coincidence that we lost both of our girls on the same day.
Sooner or later, if you have enough animals you're bound to "get lucky",
as the case may be.
 
We buried them Tuesday with their friends who had already crossed the
Rainbow Bridge on our property in the mountains.
 
They will be missed.
 
Steve and Colleen
From the High Mountains of Colorado
Continually Matching Wits with Taz, Scamp, Guinness, Chevy, and Maverick
Waiting on the Other Side:  Ripple, Missy, Zebulon Pike, Newone, Slinky,
Ranger, Puck, Mica, Splinter, Harp, Rosie, and Minx.
[Posted in FML issue 3033]