I never in a million years thought I'd be writing one of these posts, at least not this soon. My boy Charlie (aka, Destructo- Monster) died suddenly last night. I had had a feeling for the past day or so that something was not quite right, but it was nothing I could put my finger on. Yesterday morning, he refused his morning treat of Chicken Soup cat food, but just the night before he had polished off his duck soup with alactrity. I also noticed that he was sleeping on the floor of the kitchen instead of in his cage, which was unusual, but I just chalked it up to it being warmer in the house than it usually is. Then about 9:30 last night, we were watching TV and my husband heard Charlie struggling for air. We immediately started heading for the emergency vets, but he was gone before we even got in the car. The vet did a necropsy on him, and called me about midnight to let me know that he died of a massive tumor in his chest, which was compressing his heart and lungs and depriving him of oxygen. I'm still in shock that there could be something THAT wrong with the little guy, and he never showed a sign until the day he died. I feel so guilty that I didn't see it coming and take him in earlier in the day. But at the same time, I don't know that we could have saved him anyway. I guess maybe it was just his time to go, and I'm glad that he didn't have to suffer for long. Charlie was only about 11 months old, a dark sable coat, and more "ferretude" than any creature I know. If there was something that could be gotten into, he'd get into it. If there was something to be spilled, he'd spill it. If there was anything that could possibly be knocked over, climbed up on, shredded, pooped on, or snorkeled in, then Charlie was your man. If you had any exposed skin to nip, he'd find that too. He loved those little mini tennis balls, and would spend hours rescuing them from his brother Linus, and making sure they were safetly tucked away in HIS favorite hidey-hole. Charlie was a weasel's weasel, and we're going to miss him. [Posted in FML issue 5202]