This is a sad morning.

I'd written about Banana's respiratory problems, which briefly turned into
pneumonia.  While antibiotics had cleared the latter up very quickly, the
labored, wheezy breathing remained.  Daily respiratory treatments failed to
improve the situation.

She was taken in for a CAT scan last Friday, and they found two serious
problems: something, probably cancer, thickening and constricting the
windpipe, and something growing in the nasal/sinus area.  

We had been warned that the trachial tubes used for the biopsies could
exacerbate the swelling in the windpipe area.  Sure enough, by Saturday, she
was clearly having major breathing difficuties and hadn't eaten for two days,
including the mandatory 12 hour fast prior to the scan.  I ran her into the
regular vet for steroid injections, which seem to usually be an elixir for the
cats.

By Sunday she was eating a little, and on Monday she wolfed down anything we'd
put in front of her.  She lumbered outside and happily spent both Monday and
Tuesday sitting in the garden, getting nice and dirty.

Tuesday the dreaded results were confirmed: two different forms of cancer in
the two areas, quite virulent.  Wednesday the vet and I decided that treatment
was unlikely to yield positive results, and that it wasn't even worth the
effort to see my oncologist.  We decided to start her on Prednisone pills for
the rest of her life, which he told me might be two weeks.  We made the
decision that when things deteriorated to the level of Saturday, it would be
the appropriate time to end things.

Last evening she suddenly took a turn for the worse.  Happily that's the vet's
late evening, so I ran her in for steroid shots, fluids, and vitamin shots.  
She came home, and didn't move all night from the position where I put her.  
Didn't look at any food, including a can of people chicken and a can of people
mackeral.  She didn't seem to want any affection, and was still breathing with
difficulty.

I took her outside and put her in the sun on her favorite chair, took a
couple last pictures, and called the vet.  I had previously put a blank check
in her file with instructions to use it and just leave the receipt in the
file, so that I wouldn't have to do anything but leave.  I drove over and said
goodbye.  Unfortunately, I had to sign the euthanasia authorization, but it
was quick.

Banana was a sweetheart.  I never regretted taking her home, enjoyed having
her, but hadn't considered her one of my truly special cats.  But she grew on
me over those years, and the last year or two I really developed a fondness
for her.  She was loved, and will be missed.  

Art