It's Tuesday morning.  The sun is shining.  The birds are singing.  Leaves
are blowing about as is usual for just another fall day.  But it isn't so
usual when you feel like you've lost a big part of your family...
 
Mandy was one of the first two kitties my hubby and I got when we first
moved in together.  The first kitty was Ming, a little suck of a siamese,
who would not stop sucking on our ear lobes.  We had him almost two months
when we brought home his friend, Mandy, who would turn out to be his life
long mate.
 
Mandy was a beautiful little red and white, semi-long haired kitty who
never ceased to amaze us.  Her ability to balance perfectly on the smallest
of areas always made us hold our breaths, as she effortlessly jumped up to
these spots to get a better view of life around her.  She also had this
thing about squeezing into the smallest of spots... this would always make
me laugh as you never knew where she would turn up next.
 
When my hubby and I got our first ferret, she didn't seem to mind them at
all.  She would play with them when Ming would not.  Later, as she got
older, and more and more ferrets came into the house, her opinion changed
as the ferret's favourite game of Ride The Kitty By The Ear, turned out
not to be her favourite.  I will always have vivid memories of her running
down the hallway with ferret attached to her...
 
Mandy was a lover and not a fighter... Her gentle nature would always put
her into conflict with other furry house guests who felt that she was an
easy target.  I recall having to rescue her a lot.  Then, her attitude
changed and she started to fight back.  This I was happy for, but then
she ended up in a battle she could not win...
 
About two months ago, I found a lump under Mandy's jaw.  It was very hard,
and truth be told, I feared the worst as to what it could possibly be.  But
my heart would not let me think of anything more than it being an infected
bite.
 
When I got the news that she had osteosarcoma... a form of bone cancer...
I knew her options were limited.  I was told that it could be removed,
but because of its placement, half her lower jaw would have to go with it.
The surgery had been done many times before with animals seemingly living
out their natural lives.  None had had the surgery at 16 and 1/2 years of
age...
 
So here I was left with a choice... Have my old little kitty go through a
horrific surgery leaving her with little ability to eat normally again, or
to take care of her for the next few weeks, as that is all she would have
left.  This cancer was a fast mover.
 
I decided to let nature take its course.  I felt a tremendous amount of
guilt for opting out of the surgical route... I had spent thousands of
dollars on a ferret that I barely knew, but I wouldn't do it for a kitty
that had been my companion for her lifetime... I knew it wasn't the same
for I knew that my little girl, who loved me more than I could ever love
her, was meant to have some dignity in her life.  This surgery would be
very hard on her...
 
The weeks following the initial diagnosis unfolded the speed this kind of
cancer can have.  Within the first week, the mass had grown twice it's
size... by the end... she had a mass that came out the side of her jaw...
 
She had always been a happy little kitty, even when the ferrets were
pestering her.  But by the time the decision came to end her discomfort,
she was only the shell of the sweetheart I had grown to love.
 
We took her outside for the last time, to lay her tiny feet onto the grass
she so dearly loved to eat.  As the dry leaves blew about her, she took no
notice as she was interested only in having the wind blow through her now
cropped hair.  She had long since lost her ability to clean herself.  Her
wisp of a tail, once full with long soft hair, waved calmly as she smelled
the air.  She purred and continued to show love for us as we took her into
the car.
 
Mandy watched as the world went by.  She rubbed her face on my arm leaving
no blood like she had been for the last little while.  She settled in my
arms as we silently said our goodbyes....
 
With her head in my hands, she left this earthly plane, to return once
again to a time when she did not have to deal with the horrors of bone
cancer.  And today we return her body back to nature, and back to God for
his safekeeping.
 
Baby... look out for the others who'll be waiting for you... Ming says he
misses you terribly.... please watch over us all until the time comes when
we will join you... Don't be too hard on the ferrets where you are... they
just want to have a little fun.
 
Betty and Her Blur O'Fur
Missing Mandy... my precious little girl
But remembering you forever...
[Posted in FML issue 3209]