Goodbye Katie

Gwyneth and I went up to PA on Friday night to visit her grandparents. As usually happens when one of us is away from the home, one of the animals took sick. Katie the cat started out with a bulge on the side of her face, by Saturday morning her left eye was distorted and bulging, so Kim took her to the vets. The vet expressed concern and gave her some high powered antibiotics, but did discuss quality of life with Kim. Gwyneth and I came back last night. This morning we noticed when we woke up that there was no Katie pestering us for food. We went downstairs and saw Katie sitting still moving her head back and forth, with her eye really bulging out and now bright red.

We took her back to the vets and, after finding pus in her ears, nose, and eye, they explained that the most likely diagnosis was an exceedingly aggressive tumor that was just eating away at her bones. They explained that we could spend $4500 on an MRI and surgery on the tumor, but with her diabetes she may get another 2 months of life, but there was no guarantee on the quality of that life (she would definitely lose the eye). So we made the only decision that we could. All 3 of us sat and held her while they gave her the sedative, then we had Gwyneth sit in the play area of the waiting room while they gave her the final injection.