Lucy is Gone
Sep. 15th, 2023 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aWe lost our Lucy Cat today.
She stopped eating about when I left for my trip, and we knew that if we saw another crash like that it'd be the last one, because we'd moved through the entire menu of possible medications and treatments over the last four months.
She also had started retaining water and seemed to be showing other signs of physical distress that we hadn't seen in the rest of this long, long trial. So, aside from a week of not eating, there also seemed real indications that at last she might be suffering, which had never seemed the case before this week.
I am of course in Germany, but Kimberly was thankfully there to be sure that our kitty had a friendly face and a kindly hand as she exited the world.
Really shitty being halfway around the world tonight, but we just can't time life and death. We were not going to put this decision on a calendar; allowing her that last chance to eat after we removed her tube was much better, and will feel much better in the long run, even if it ultimately resulted in my not being there for Lucy or for Kimberly (but we did video both before and after, and I also made sure I said a good goodbye to Lucy before I left, just in case her OK eating of the previous week suddenly crashed, as it did).
I think Kimberly and I are both wishing that we could have done more, but I really believe that we did all that we could. It's just that, as with Callisto, we had no answers, and so no solutions, and in the end our resources were entirely depleted. It's frustrating, and very painful, but Lucy got a good life of 16 and a half years and a very joyful one, except for those darned Orangies. (And those darned Orangies got to meet her and perhaps learn some things from her.)
I should write more about our beloved kitty and the many things that made her great, but not tonight, and perhaps not until I return home.
She stopped eating about when I left for my trip, and we knew that if we saw another crash like that it'd be the last one, because we'd moved through the entire menu of possible medications and treatments over the last four months.
She also had started retaining water and seemed to be showing other signs of physical distress that we hadn't seen in the rest of this long, long trial. So, aside from a week of not eating, there also seemed real indications that at last she might be suffering, which had never seemed the case before this week.
I am of course in Germany, but Kimberly was thankfully there to be sure that our kitty had a friendly face and a kindly hand as she exited the world.
Really shitty being halfway around the world tonight, but we just can't time life and death. We were not going to put this decision on a calendar; allowing her that last chance to eat after we removed her tube was much better, and will feel much better in the long run, even if it ultimately resulted in my not being there for Lucy or for Kimberly (but we did video both before and after, and I also made sure I said a good goodbye to Lucy before I left, just in case her OK eating of the previous week suddenly crashed, as it did).
I think Kimberly and I are both wishing that we could have done more, but I really believe that we did all that we could. It's just that, as with Callisto, we had no answers, and so no solutions, and in the end our resources were entirely depleted. It's frustrating, and very painful, but Lucy got a good life of 16 and a half years and a very joyful one, except for those darned Orangies. (And those darned Orangies got to meet her and perhaps learn some things from her.)
I should write more about our beloved kitty and the many things that made her great, but not tonight, and perhaps not until I return home.