Tonight, I wanted to post a very special entry for Steve and me. Yesterday our dear sweet kitty, Dammitt, died. Our poor girl hadn't been eating very well for a while and seemed to be losing a ton of weight. We made a vet appointment for Monday, February 1st. Steve took her in and it was not good news. They did some x-rays and blood work. It turns out Dammitt had a large mass in her belly area and they weren't sure what it was or what it was attached to. Her blood work came back good, except she was low in protein. The last time she had visited the vet she weighed 15 lbs. On Monday she weighed 11.6 lbs. That is quite a bit of weight to lose on a kitty. They gave us a couple of options, we could do an exploratory surgery to find out where the mass was and see if it was removable or we could do nothing. We opted for the surgery. The doctor said if it was what he thought it was then it was most likely removable. He thought it might be tumor in the intestine. They could remove that part of the intestine and attach it back together. He did mention that he had not seen one that large before. When he started the surgery he said he would call us and let us know whether he thought she had a good chance at survival after the removal of the tumor or if he thought it wiser to not wake her up from the surgery.
They happened to have a spot open in their schedule for yesterday afternoon. We decided to take it and hoped for the best. Well, that didn't happen.
The doctor called and had bad news. The tumor was indeed attached to her intestine but it was also attached to her pancreas. It was about 6 inches x 2 inches in size. He said that it had spread to her lymph nodes. He could remove it, but it would take quite a bit of recovery and even then he didn't know if it would completely cure it. He said there might be microscopic bits elsewhere and they would pop up later.
So Steve and I had to make the hardest decision of our lives. We decided to have them keep her sedated till we could come and then we would have them put her to sleep. So Steve left work early and I left during my dinner break from Parent Teacher Conferences to go see our little tubby for the last time. Steve's sister, Carolyn, came along for support. After spending some alone time with our kitty we called for the doctor to come back in. He put some more anesthetic into Dammitt's I.V. and said once it was all put in, it would only take about 20 seconds for her to be gone.
When the doctor was finished he let us have more time with her. Then I unfortunately had to go back to do more conferences. We decided to have Fluff-a-luff cremated, so that we could bury her up at my grandparent's cabin alongside my dog Whitney. She was a wonderful cat and best friend to my best friend, so now I would like to share all our happy times with our Fluffykins.
Here is a picture of when Steve soon after he got Dammitt from the Humane Society. Steve decided to pick her because she had an attitude...she hissed at him! Apparently she had a cold when he got her and Steve and Dammitt would wake up to crusty boogers all over the place from her sneezes.
Dammitt was 6 years old so she was Steve's roommate and best friend long before I came along. But the rest of the pictures are from the last year or so. Here is Dammitt lying in her most favorite spot...the crook of Steve's arm. She was almost like a little puppy dog, she would follow Steve from room to room just to be near him. She would be waiting at the door when Steve got home, and she was an excellent listener.
Dammitt had to suffer through numerous costumes after I came along. Her favorite by far I think was the antlers and jester collar. Just look at that face, can't you feel the love oozing out of her?
Here is her Halloween costume. She is a little monster!
My favorite part about putting her into costumes or sweaters was when she tried to rub them off by commando crawling on the floor. She was not a big fan.
Speaking of fans, Dammy's leader of her fan club was my grandma Diana. Here she is talking to Dammitt. Grandma always said how Dammitt would talk to her. She would meow and meow when you talked to her.
We decided maybe Fluffy would be more cat-like if we got her a cat condo. Here she is looking very regal standing at the top. Of course she couldn't get up there by herself, she wasn't that cat-like.
The top is also where she got put if she was being naughty. She didn't really like to jump down from that high up, so she often stayed up there for quite a while.
This was my favorite level on the cat condo. Just look at that fat belly hanging through the hole in the bottom. You might think that is just fur, well you are sadly mistaken. Sometimes when she would walk really fast her belly would swing side to side. She was a well fed kitty!
Here are two more. Just look at that cute face! We love her so much.
One time we decided to get her a harness. I grew up with a dog, so I thought well can't you take cats on walks too? Apparently not. Here is what happened when we tried.
Like I said, I grew up with a dog, so cats weren't really my thing. But Dammitt was the best cat ever. She would come curl up with you to keep you warm, she would purr even when you walked into the room she was in, she didn't mind when Steve would forget to empty her litter box, she was the best! She grew on me like mold on bread! I miss her so very much.
Here is my favorite picture. She is just being so Dammitt-like. She would just plop down somewhere and lay in the oddest positions. I like to think she was chatting on the phone to her tomcat whilst doing leg lifts to get thinner thighs.
Steve and I liked to rub our face in her belly fur. We called it the "golden fur", because it was so soft and she never let you touch it willingly. She sure did put up with a lot though. Steve usually shaved her in the spring time since she was a long haired cat. She despised it with a passion, but never put up too much of a fight. Her meow would be really deep and long. Steve liked to throw the occasional pillow at her when she looked the most comfortable. She would be startled then go back to sleeping with the pillow on top of her, or move two steps to one side and flop down again. I preferred to throw my wet towel from the shower on her. Oh, we loved her so much.
Here are some pictures from the day before she passed away.
Dammitt was such a beautiful kitty and will be and already is greatly missed. She was a brave little pussy cat and best friend.
Love you, Dammy!
