First and foremost, to all who've lost their beloved fur kids, my heart
goes out to you, and may all who are nursing ill ones have healthy kids
soon.
 
Storm came to us back in January, one of the Minnesota rescue kids.
She and her sisters weren't named when they came, but they got named
immediately.  They also came with Big Boy, who has been renamed Bilbo
Baggins.  Storm has a huge bare strip on her back, and April felt she was
adrenal.  The first month she was fine, having fun, harassing the cats,
but in the last month she became extremely lethargic.  So we knew she had
to have adrenal.  This past Thursday she and Scully went into the vets.
I didn't get to go, really couldn't get off, but my husband took them and
stood in on the surgeries.  I asked they do Storm first.  I got a call
from Larry, they'd opened her up and found the left adrenal huge, the
right one fairly enlarged and resting on the vena cava.  The vet didn't
feel that it would be advisable to do surgery, said when he's seen them
this large they've normally gone into a malignancy.  So I told them sew
her up, bring her home.
 
Then it was Scully's turn.  Scully is one of the original Crew of Merry
Mayhem, one of Kouri's fan club members.  She and her sister Genie came
to us when she was 2 months old.  Dark gray, white bib.  She had this
adorable way of rolling over, putting her paws together.  She'd play
and then suddenly bite, and bite hard.  Over the years she's 'faded' or
roaned out till her body has been cream colored, dark, almost black tail,
gray head, and one paw had half white half silver.  She became almost a
pewter color where she was still gray..  In the fall she got some lumps
under her arms, and our vet said he didn't feel they were anything to
worry about.  She had no real adrenal signs except extreme lethargy,
slightly enlarged nipples.  So I thought I'd best send her, although I
still didn't know if I was doing the right thing.  She also had a mast
cell tumor on the left side.  So Scully went to the vet.  She had an
enlarged left adrenal which came out, and a tumor on the pancreas.  The
vet said it was situated not on the end, but more in the middle, slightly
deep.  He wondered about it, but Larry told him to remove it.  That was
done, he stitched her up, took off the mast cell tumor.  All went well,
color was up, breathing normal.  The vet turned off the anesthesia, took
the cone off her and she was gone.  Larry said he worked for almost a
half an hour to save her.  Both of them were extremely upset.  Larry
finally called me at work, and I had to leave the room.  He was still
crying when he got there and we took her to the regular vet for
cremation.
 
While at the regular vet (we use Julie Fossa's vet for surgeries) we
discussed him doing Storm.  We talked about the tumors, and we're going
to redo her surgery on the 4th.  I think the other vet, who, by the way,
I trust implicitly also, wasn't comfortable doing the surgery as he
doesn't have the laser and cryosurgery our regular vet does.  So all
of you, please keep Storm in your thoughts on April 4th.
 
Sandee, please make sure my Scully arrived safely.  She has a beautiful
coat, wonderful eyes.  I told her and Storm Thursday morning about the
Bridge, but told them I knew they'd be coming home, that it wouldn't be
yet they'd see the others.  I guess I should have spent more time telling
them.  Please make sure the Crew of Merry Mayhem met her, as Socks and
Kit were two of her very first friends.  Tell her I'm so sorry she left,
that I wasn't there with her.  I held her at the vet's, hoping against
hope she'd breathe, take a deep one and bite my finger.  I know Calvin,
Genie, Fang, Mookie and Conan miss her.  Calvin's been slightly off since
Thursday.  She loves chicken gravy, natural peanut butter.  If you have
blanket tosses, she loves that.  She was always wanting to be tossed,
getting under the sheets during the ceremonial making of the bed.  She
was such a lady, never into trouble.  I'm so numb on this I can't think
straight.  I keep looking for her, keeping calling her name, called Storm
Scully the other day, and they're not even the same color.  Scully bird,
my Scully-wogs, have fun, hear me?  I don't know why you had to leave so
suddenly, so soon.  It's so hard, not finding you in the cage, rolling
in front of me for a hug.  Scully, be good-I miss you so much.
 
Rebecca & the very sad Crew of Merry Mayhem
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and
 taste good with ketchup"
"Support bacteria, it's the only culture some people have"
[Posted in FML issue 4095]