December 12. 2008

This is Wolsey. The best Maine Coon ever. The better part of my heart died with him.

December 7, 2008

Well the holidays are upon us and I hope all of you are enjoying the season. The month of November just seemed to fly by. I did suffer the loss of one of my kitties, Nemo. I had to have him euthanized on November 20. He had been tentatively diagnosed with a nasal tumor about 2 months prior to this. As the options for treating nasal tumors are not that good, I decided to forgo any further testing and give him palliative treatment. He was not in any pain but did have a runny and stuffy nose on and off. That last morning when I got up, he was lost and could not get down off the sofa on his own. He was almost acting like he was blind, but it was more than that as he didn't respond to his name or anything. He also kept pressing his head against the wall. I brought him into my vet and he felt that the mass had grown into his brain at this point and he had suffered some devastating brain injury with no hope for recovery. So I made the decision to let Nemo go as the Nemo that I had known and loved was already for all intents and purposes gone.

This is never an easy decision to make even when it is the right one. Having as many pets as I have had I've had to make this decision way too many times. It can also be hard when you feel like you are dealing with it alone. A lot of friends or co- workers just can't understand how devastating this sort of loss can be. It's also a difficult loss for an elderly person to suffer as often this may be their only home companion. No one should have to go through this alone so I've decided to utilize part of my nursing background (my specialties were gerontology and psychiatric) and offer grief support as one of my services.

I also want to give a plug to Final Gift. They are the crematory who handled Nemo and they are just wonderful. His ashes were returned on the 24th . Included in the bag with his urn was a pawprint ornament with Nemo's pawprint and his name on it. Since there was no further info on it I had thought it was done by Final Gift, however due to tragic circumstances I just found out that it was actually done by my veterinary clinic NorthPaws Veterinary Center.