Some of you know that we lost one of our cats a few weeks ago. He had stopped eating and seemed to be feeling bad. I was going to take him to the vet on the following Monday morning, and as I went to get him, I found him lying in the hall floor, gasping for breath. I got him to the emergency vet, but they told me he either had a tumor or congestive heart failure. He “went to sleep” about 2 hours later. It was very hard, because we’ve had him for a long time. My son didn’t take it well, at all.

Our 15 year-old cat, Allie (in the photo), has had a growth on her neck for some time now, but we assumed it was similar to the benign fatty tumors that our dog has. She scratched it bloody last week, and we decided to take her to the vet. We were told it was cancer and should be removed. We scheduled the surgery, but when the full blood results came back, we found out that she also had FIV, the cat equivalent of HIV. This meant that if she survived the surgery, she could no longer live with our other two cats, who had each tested negative for FIV. My son’s reaction when we told him about all this, “Not again!!!”

Well, she did survive the surgery and came home this morning. She doesn’t seem to be in any pain, and she is as friendly and active as she ever was. She will stay with us for two weeks, until her bandages come off. At that point, she will be going to live with my mother. Her dog is looking forward to Allie’s arrival.

Click on the photo to see photos of her with her bandage on.