Goodbye

This morning, I said goodbye to Ullrick at the vet's office with the knowledge that he might not be coming home. I had a feeling that would be the last time that I would see him, and a phone call around 4 pm confirmed that feeling. He had a lump in his lymph node that was inoperable and untreatable. Rather than bring him home just so I could spend a few more days with him, I made the decision to let him cross the Rainbow Bridge while he was already asleep. To make any other decision would have been unfair to him, and I had already said my goodbyes. It happened so fast, I'm still in shock, but I know that this was the right decision for him. But knowing I made the right decision somehow doesn't make this any easier. It's just such a shame that he was such a young and beautiful cat with a full life ahead of him. He was my first cat that I had as an adult, and he will always hold a special place in my heart.

Vessa and I are hanging in there, but time is the only thing that will lessen the pain right now. It's a visceral emptiness and I keep thinking about his big, green "alien" eyes.

We will miss you.

Calling all paws...

We havn't updated in awhile because things have been crazy with work and life in a foreign country...but I now have bad news, and I'd ask you all to keep us in your thoughts the next few days.

In the last two weeks, Ullrick has rapidly lost weight and has been pretty listless. But he was still eating and drinking, so I waited a few days to see if he would improve. Over the weekend, it became clear to me that something was very wrong.

Today we spent six hours at the vet doing various blood tests, ultrasounds, and x-rays. It seems that Ullrick has some sort of lump in his intestines and the results of the blood tests were not good. Tomorrow morning they are doing exploratory surgery to see if they can figure out the cause of his illness. Hopefully, it's benign and can be removed immediately. And I don't really want to think about the other possibilities right now until we have a definite prognosis...

The vet gave me some non-conclusive information this afternoon, and I missed half of it since it was in Swedish and my thoughts were elsewhere. There is a possibility it is feline leukemia, which means that Vessa will have to be tested for it as well, even though she is a healthy, happy, and very friendly 10-month-old. Ullrick is just a year...he's too young to be going through this.

Ullrick is laying right here next to me on the bed and is one very unhappy kitten. The day at the vet was hard on both of us, but especially him.

Please keep your fingers and paws crossed in the next 24-hours, and we'll let you know when we have more information.

/Curiosa