I almost hesitate to post something this personal because of all of the
tragedy going on in the aftermath of Katrina, but I know people here
understand.

I had to let Kona go to the Bridge Tuesday night.

Around the beginning of July he developed a swelling in the side of his
face, some discharge from his nose, a bit of difficulty breathing
through his nose and a high fever.  I wound up taking him to an
internist, who found a pocket of pus (sorry) in behind his eye and
nose, which she removed by going through the roof of his mouth. No
indication of cancer.  The internist wasn't sure of the cause for the
infection (thought it might have originated with having a tooth
removed) but he got back to his normal self for a couple of weeks and I
was really relieved.  Then at the end of July his sinuses started to
clog up and became unable to breathe through his nose.  He stopped
eating and drinking and I had to force feed him and get him hydrated
every other day at the vet.  He didn't want to lay down his head, so
I made him a little pillow from some towels that helped some.  When
more antibiotics didn't help, the internist did a rhinoscopy and
discovered an adenoma (slow growing benign tumor) in his sinuses.  He
was declining each day because he had stopped eating and drinking on
his own and at the internist's recommendation I took him to Auburn to
get a CT scan to get a better handle on exactly what they were dealing
with and what the options were.  After an endoscopy and a CT scan, the
vets at Auburn said the tumor was large and located on both sides of
his sinuses and at the juncture of his throat and sinuses.  Because of
its size and location, there wasn't a realistic chance that surgery
would be successful.  Chemo apparently isn't effective for this kind
of slow growing tumor and neither is radiation, especially given where
the tumor was located.  By this time he had lost over three pounds in
about two weeks and he was laboring to breathe in through his mouth
(they kept him in the equivalent of a cat oxygen tent while he was
there and that helped).  The vet there told me that there was just
nothing they could offer that would do anything but keep him going for
a short time with a declining quality of life.  I was hoping against
hope when I took him to them that they would be able to solve the
problem, but there really wasn't anything they could do to make him
better.  It helped a little knowing for sure where things stood as far
as what the options were.  On Tuesday I held his head while the vet
helped him cross over to the Bridge.  He seemed to know it was time-he
was just so tired from struggling with breathing and swallowing and
being force fed and not being able to get decent sleep.  He went very
peacefully.

    I adopted Kona along with Sebastian less than two years ago after
Prissy passed away.  I had seen him at the vet's office (they also
have a shelter operation there) the last few months of taking Prissy
in.  He was 12 and had been dumped by his original "family".  I was
entranced with him from the first time I saw him-a 20 lb brown tabby,
he stood out in the shelter just because he was bigger than the others.
The staff there loved him but they weren't able to give him the
attention he wanted and you could tell he wasn't happy.  After I
adopted him the staff was always glad to see him when he came in.  He
was a wonderful guy-just a big ole' teddy bear who wanted to be
loved.  He generally stayed in the same room with me if he was awake
and if he had the chance he would hop up in Mommy's lap and bury his
head in the crook of my arm and purr. He usually slept in the bed with
me.   He loved to "help" Mommy every time she was working on
something at the computer.  He was fascinated with running
water-watching it, drinking from the faucet, sticking his head under it
and letting the water run over the sides of his face.  He loved to lick
condensation from bottles if you were drinking something cold, but he
was always polite enough to wait for you to offer the container for him
to lick.   He liked sitting in the top of the cat cactus, even though
he was too big for it and he could only sit in it by letting one leg
stick out and looked kind of silly.  He and Sebastian tolerated each
other and on occasion took turns chasing each other, but they were like
the "Odd Couple"-Sebastian is very fastidious and Kona needed a
little help grooming himself because he just wasn't built for
flexibility.  Sebastian was always trying to find new places to sleep
where there wasn't any "Kona smell".  Kona seemed to go out of
his way to try to find those places and ruin them for Sebastian by
sleeping in them. :-)   Even though he was 14 YO, Kona would still play
with cat toys and would even fetch.

    Because of his age, I knew when I adopted Kona that he wasn't going
to be with me for as long as I would have liked, but I so hoped that he
was going to get over this episode and that we would have a few more
years together.  You just never know.   It helps some knowing that he
was really happy in the time I had him, even if it was shorter than I
had hoped for.   He was just a really, really wonderful, sweet guy.
I'm so grateful for the time he was able to share with me but I miss
him so much and I have that empty feeling now when I come home and he
isn't there waiting for me.

    I haven't updated the page in a while, but some pictures of Kona,
Sebastian and Prissy are at http://tinyurl.com/acpjo.