Forgive me if this is a mess, okay?  Sleep is now being taken as short naps
so that Ruffle can be monitored well, and Steve and I are still very shaken.
It's not that we didn't realize that this was probably happening; it's more
that we worked hard to deny it to ourselves, and we hoped that the operation
might buy Ruffie more than a month, though we are extremely grateful that
she has had a month of mousie stashing, and even got to the point where she
chose a few times to roll over without being asked when she wanted treats.
 
Right now it's a toss-up whether her heart, her liver, or the two combined
will take her.  Her non-cardiomyopathic heart disease did progress into
hypertropic cardiomyopathy as Bruce Williams had predicted; we just caught
it in the unusually early stages back in March.  Right now it has grown at
such a rate that it is pushing everything else out of her chest cavity.  Her
liver is also showing signs of failure.  With the current ways that she
responds to things, and because her liver problem will become painful if it
progresses too far we are taking each hour/day/ hopefully week at a time.
Should the liver worsen we will have her put to sleep to save her needless
pain.  Since her heart has not yet caused as much discomfort as would be
expected we might not have to consider that option for her with the heart.
We realize that not everyone out there agrees with handling things this way,
but she is a wonderful individual who desearves her cuddles while she can
enjoy them and desearves to not suffer if we can help.
 
Because there are possibly important things which can be learned from her
after she leaves us she will be autopsied and her cadaver has been offered
to Bruce after Hanan is done.  No one expected her to last so many years
with all her health problems (acondroplasic dwarfism, with arthritis in her
little twisted toes, retardation, asthma, insulinoma, adrenal problems,
liver cyst and disorder, heart disease, etc.), but she has certainly made
the most of her six years with us, and we will sorely miss her funny ways.
We are hurting a great deal, but as bad as this is we feel honored that she
was a part of lives and that we were able to share her joys and help her
when possible.
 
Bill, we received issues from you today.  Thank you.
 
Thanks to all the folks who have lent us their support and helpful advice
over these months.  You were there when we needed you and that helped us us
much.  Just hearing your sweet voices and reading your kind words has meant
more to us than I can express.
 
We originally expected Meltdown to be the one to leave us first, but her
only bout with intestinal inflammation fortunately turned out to be a GI
problem rather than fluid, and she is doing much better than anyone ever
expected.  We hope she has several more months of pleasure ahead.  Ther are
things in this world which are well beyond anyone's ken.
 
Send us some funny stories, okay?
 
Sukie, Steve, Meltdown, Ruffle, 'Chopper the organic helicopter, Spot who
has none, Meeteetse, and Warp.
[Posted in FML issue 1605]