I registered after hearing about Caramon. I have been reading Two Lumps for several months now, and it has always brought a smile to my face. I'm so sorry to hear about Snooch's counterpart. I lost my little Jasmine On July 22nd.
This was my little baby girl. She was never a large kitty, nine pounds was her largest and she was just six years old. I took Jasmine to the vet the Tuesday of that terrible week because she would no longer eat and I was seeing her wasting away. She had been vomiting for a few months, but cats just seem to do that a lot and by the look of her vomit, It just seemed she was eating too fast. You know something is seriously wrong when the vetranarian starts feeling around on your kitty's tummy and saying: "Uh oh, uh oh, what's this?" One thing I have to say about my vet is that though he's an excellent doctor and takes very good care of the animals, his bedside manner sucks. He gave me two other options before I put the third together. Exploratory surgery was the only move to make, because whatever mass had lodged itself would have to come out anyway.
The next day just before noon I got the worst news I could have thought of. Jasmine's digestive system had been attacked by acute and agressive pancreatic cancer. The vet said that her digestive tract was unrecognizable, and my now seven and a half pound cat was more tumor than kitty. From her pancreas to her bladder was mass after mass, and the reason she wasn't eating anymore was because there was a tumor in her stomach the size of the vet's fist, which is pretty darn big. So I did the only thing I could do and gave him the go ahead to put my sweet little Jasmine down. I had to return to work and was a mess the entire day, just wanting to go home and give my baby a proper burial. My dad had, under duress from me, gone to the vet and picked up her remains and put her in the truck where I could get to her. I skipped college class that night and put her to rest. I know just how much it hurts to catch something fatal far too late, though by as agressive as her cancer seems to have been, there was nothing I could have done for her. I thankfully caught it just when she was starting to slow down from it.
My Jasmine was a rescue kitten from my local animal control where my middle brother worked. The day after I adopted her, he told me that all of her brothers and sisters had been put to sleep because their time was up. I literally snatched her from the jaws. She was a good cat and though she took numerous excursions outside much to my distress and worry, as she was declawed in the front, I loved the little brat. I'll always remember how she used to answer me when I called her and the time she met me halfway at the door step and flopped onto her back as if to say "You know you can't be mad at me, I'm too cute". Or the little dog flea medicine incident that probably took a few lives right there. My mother put dog flea medicine on my cat thinking it was a kind that could be used on both. Long story short, It resulted in my cat almost dying.
She was seizing in front of the Bathroom when I called the vet, read off an ingredient and he said. "Yep, that kills cats." WONDERFUL bedside manner, I tell you. So when I asked him if there was anything I could do about it, he told me to give her a bath and to keep her calm. ". . . since WHEN does bath and calm cat mix?!" By the time I was done with the bath, Jasmine was not only twitching, but making strange noises, and I was hysterical.I put her in the dog cage so she wouldn't try to jump around and this is how stoned she was...she was staring at the bars, eyes dilated, slowly pawing at them as if she could see them, but wasn't sure they were really there. So I called up my vet again, and before long I was driving down to the clinic still in my nightgown at 11: 30 at night with a convulsing cat in the passenger's side seat. The vet met me, taped her paws together, put a tube down her stomach and put charcoal in it to absorb the toxins. He kept her until about six the next day. Surprisingly, and my gratitude goes to my vet, the bill was only $55.00 after an emergency visit like that. When the assistant handed her back to me that day, she climbed into my arms and snuggled me close. I really knew my baby loved me. Some cats don't really show affection, but she would come up and rub her whiskers against my cheek and give me little nose pushes. She was always really good for the vet too. She would fuss at me all the way there in the car, but never offered to get under my feet or distract me, and when we arrived at the vet that last time, she put her soft little rabbit fur paws on the dashboard, looked at the building, looked at me, and climbed into my lap to go in. She allowed the vet to tape her front paws once again, and tie her back leg down under the table and shave it, all without complaint. The only complaint she gave was when he was drawing the blood for the lukemia test, and all she did was fuss a bit, no fight. I gave her a little kiss on the top of her head before she disappeared into the cage and the assistant assured me she would be all right, but I think that the vet knew better already. That was the last time I saw her. When I got her back she was in a black plastic bag, and it would have been unwise to look. There was a little poem that the vet sent me after Jasmine's passing, and I thought I would share it now:
The Rainbow Bridge
inspired by a Norse legend
By the edge of a woods, at the foot of a hill,
Is a lush, green meadow where time stands still.
Where the friends of man and woman do run,
When their time on earth is over and done.
For here, between this world and the next,
Is a place where each beloved creature finds rest.
On this golden land, they wait and they play,
Till the Rainbow Bridge they cross over one day.
No more do they suffer, in pain or in sadness,
For here they are whole, their lives filled with gladness.
Their limbs are restored, their health renewed,
Their bodies have healed, with strength imbued.
They romp through the grass, without even a care,
Until one day they start, and sniff at the air.
All ears prick forward, eyes dart front and back,
Then all of a sudden, one breaks from the pack.
For just at that instant, their eyes have met;
Together again, both person and pet.
So they run to each other, these friends from long past,
The time of their parting is over at last.
The sadness they felt while they were apart,
Has turned into joy once more in each heart.
They embrace with a love that will last forever,
And then, side-by-side, they cross over… together.
~~~~
I'm so sorry about Caramon, and I know that he left a great big, chunky void in your life when he passed. I wish I had been able to have been with my little Jazzy when the time came and I'm glad that you could be there for the obviously loved and missed Caramon. My best wishes are with you.
The way I chose to keep my Jasmine's memory alive was laying her to rest at the side of the barn where she liked to skulk about when she managed to escape the house and I put a stone tablet with a poem called the Reunion heart on it. I also wanted to adopt a kitten and save it like I did Jasmine, but still living with my parents, my mother said no more cats. I do now have Kayley, an austrailian sheperd lab mix , or that's what the vet thinks she is. She was rescued from the side of a road, dumped just at weaning age along with two siblings. Some people are such lazy cowards.
Sorry for rambling so much, it's still a pretty raw wound for me too. I'd like to close this overly long post with saying that if anyone here wants to adopt a cat, your local Animal control is the best place to go. They always have far too many due to the lack of birth control of strays, and you really are saving a life. They will love you for it forever..in their imperious little ways.
by *~Kitty~* on Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:10 pm 
) you have the wonderful gift and talent of helping him live on through Snooch. My sister and I will keep you in our thoughts and I hope that in your time of grief you will be able to find the happy memories and look back with a warm heart.
