h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So sorry az,

Big

F

Thanks Fathom. Lua is now up on the bed with her head resting on an old sweaty shirt I left on the foot of the bed this morning (weirdo! ). Looks like I'll be washing my sheets a lot for the time being, though happily I did get all the blood out yesterday after the tumour erupted all over the bed this past weekend. Maria put her on some medication that helps the blood clot as she said there are probably some veins near the surface of the wound that Lua irritates and opens by licking them. This seems to have helped a bit with the blood loss anyhow.

Oh my Lua.

Something tells me I'm not going to make it to my afternoon classes today.

az

Oh, az. I'm truly so sorry. That's really sad news. I wish I could be more with you than just this , but I'll be thinking of you and Lua. If there's anything I can do, just let me know.

Noggin

Thanks Noggin.

Meanwhile, I think I am unravelling. I called my doctor student Isabel to tell her I didn't think I'd be able to make it to the hospital to do my two mid-afternoon classes there today with her and Ricardo and suddenly I started blubbering and crying like an idiot.

Luckily she understands. I remember back in February breaking down in tears during one of our classes when I told her about first finding the tumour. These are nuclear medicine doctors, btw. They understand cancer. They also understand how much I love Lua.

Anyhow, today Isabel just told me to try and calm down, not to worry about the classes and that if I needed anything to call her later and either she or Ricardo would come over.

Ricardo is the head of the nuclear medicine department at the general hospital here. In February I even brought him Lua's thorax x-rays that were to check for metastasis and he said as kindly as he could that given the size of the tumour it was unlikely the cancer hadn't already spread and that the lateral x-ray taken by the vet was not a good indicator to say whether there was metastasis or not.

I'm so lucky to have such caring and understanding students.

az

Hi Az,

I just came on before heading out to a meeting....

I am so sorry. It is all so sad. Give her love and lots of pate, and many, many scratches behind the ear. It is all you can do, but she will appreciate it (I know I would!). I am sending you lots of hugs..... I will go on MSN when I get home from work, Luv, if you want to talk.

Thanks Mudhooks,

It's been a helluva day.

Okay, maybe talk to you later . . .

az

blicky just wrote this to me on our other thread. I thought it was so lovely that I'd share it here with you guys:


Life near the outdoor aint much fun, especially if you are only waiting for an exit you know wont be too far in the future.

"the sun does not go down its just an illusion caused by the world spinning around"

I realise nothing will affect your mood right now. Your sadness and pain is flip side of of the joy, comfort and companionship Lua brought to your life. These feelings will return to your life one day, but in the meantime never forget that you gave to Lua something that she shared with you too.

You were both blessed by each others presence. It is sad when you lose that but it will always be good that the two of you had it for some time at least.


(thanks blicky )

az

Beautifully written and says it all.

Az, dear, I don't know if you're still up, but just wanted to send condolences, love and many . What a tough thing to have to go through these many months.

Lua is very fortunate to have someone who adores her so much, has taken such good care of her and fretted over what's best for her. And you have done everything that you could do for her, with large doses of love and pate.

You're the greatest friend a cat could have.

thanks Big Red,

I've been lucky today because Noggin has been keeping me company on msn almost all day and evening, since I ended up having to cancel all of my classes.

And Blues Shark brought me over some good music to listen to while Noggin was off having his tea.

So I have been well looked after today. And of course the cats always love it when I spend a day at home.

I tried giving Lua some extra kisses on the head and she just went 'what the f**k*' and waddled away. That's my girl!


buenas noches everybody,

az

It's good to see she's still being her old self. Mars pulls away like the little boy he is if I try to caress him when it's not HIS idea.

I missed you on MSN last night. My computer was playing Silly Bu@@ers and when I wasn't fighting with it, I was checking MSN, but you were off whenever I was on.... I was thinking about you and Lua, and I'm glad that Noggin was there for you.

huggy, kissy to you and scratchy, kissy to Lua

Well, little miss sneaky-boots is giving me problems about taking her meds. She didn't seem to mind the blood-clotting-aid one but it seems she can sniff out the anti-biotic (or perhaps it tastes bad to her, even crushed up and added to tinned tuna - her favourite!).

She also gets suspicious when I stay in the kitchen to watch if she eats all her spiked tuna (but I have to do this or else Sunny will muscle in and eat it). So she'll start to eat it and then commence looking over her shoulder at me in a suspicious manner whilst I pretend to be doing the washing up (damn - she seems to *know* that I almost never do the washing up first thing in the morning!). Too clever for her own good, that one. Bless her.

But otherwise and that, she is still eating well and hanging out as usual, except for the new 'favourite place' she has found next to the sofa and behind the end table. She also now spends all night in the living room. I think because she knows I cannot see her licking her tumour there and then stop her, as I always do.

This morning she waddled away from me in disgust after I tried to force more spiked tuna on her and I wasn't quick enough with the camera! It's such a funny sight as you can actually *see* how cranky she is feeling by the way she attempts to hold her posture in an indignant manner as she waddles off.

Good ole Lua.


az

ps
might have to resort to the heavy artillary soon - sardines!

You could always try marmite as recommended by someone in the gallery thread.

Hope you and she are holding up well. Has Sunny noticed?

Or chilling the food in the fridge once you have spiked it. Chilled food is supposed to smell less and therefore the smell of the antibiotics goes unnoticed, allegedly.

Marmite might be an option. I did give Lua chilled tuna this morning, Caerwynn, which seemed to work better.

Back to Marmite, I usually give my cats daily malt extract in the summer as this is said it help with them being able to pass hair through their system so they don't end up puking up massive hair balls all over the place.

Unfortunately, the *one* brand of malt extract they will all gobble up when I offer a dollop of it to them on the end of my finger is no longer available here. I've tried other brands and they just take one sniff and walk away.

Aarggh.

az

I doubt ashe is the sort of cat you can manually give a pill to, but I have had success with Benjamin by doing the following:

I take a small piece of bread and knead it into a dough between my fingers. I make it into a bowl shape, and VERY carefully, without touching the pill with my fingers ( a second person helps with this) place the pill in the centre of the dough and close the dough over the pill. Roll it into a ball, wet with a little water (so it slides out easily). Hold the cat's head well back and pry the teeth open, and shove it down his throat. You have to hold the mouth shut and stroke the cat's throat until you feel is swallow.

If he keeps from swallowing, I press his nose gently and he usually will, them.

Don't make the ball too big, or getting it into the mouth and down the throat is difficult.

az, you did exactly the right things all the way through.

Now love her and let her go.



Jez

<>




um, no, she isn't.


az

Now love her and let her go.