Doubly unfair...

On the heels of losing Beatrice, this is extra heartbreaking...

On Friday, I took Millicent the vet because she had suddenly lost a lot of weight. On top of that, the other day, I felt a disturbing lump on the side of her abdomen.

I had a bad feeling as soon as I felt that, but I tried to tell myself it could be hyperthyroidism (like Mootie has) or maybe her dewormer hadn't been effective, or...

but no. Millicent has a huge, aggressive tumour in her abdomen that will take her life, probably in a matter of weeks but you never know.

You can see the mass sticking up from her side (top) in the photo. It came out of nowhere and now fills most of her abdominal cavity. Her x-ray was appalling. As soon as I saw Dr. Dave's face as he palpated the lump, I knew we were f*cked.

So far, she is not experiencing any pain, and she is eating quite well (feeding the tumour, losing her healthy weight.) The most likely progression will be for the tumour to begin to block her digestive tract, so we will be watching her closely for vomiting or any other signs of a blockage, at which point we will have to have her euthanized. For now, she is taking prednisone twice a day, in the hopes that it will stimulate her appetite (which right now is good) and also possibly shrink the tumour a bit. I will take any time it gives us, but it is unlikely to be much. At the same time, she's tolerating the prednisone well and seems her usual self, apart from suddenly being bone-thin.

Millicent is only 3 years old and perhaps the sweetest cat I own. She gets along with all of our other cats and is just so special to us. Here is the bio I wrote about her for our farm website:

This sweetheart of a cat sticks her tongue out and drools when you pet her. Millicent was abandoned at a nearby farm when her elderly owner was sent to a nursing home. Sometime after that, another neighbour noticed a starving cat at the empty property and began feeding her. Over the next three months, this woman (a senior citizen herself) fattened Millicent up nicely, but she couldn't offer her a home, so she asked a mutual friend of ours if Gordon and I would take Millicent as a barn cat. She kindly offered to pay for her spay surgery as well. So now Millicent moved in.

She is very shy but she is also very affectionate, and loves to be cuddled. She has been slowly coming out of her shell, but when humans have left you to starve, it takes a while to trust them again. We couldn't be happier having Millicent with us. She was born sometime in 2015 and that mark on her forehead is a patch of grey, not dirt. We adopted Millicent on September 9, 2016.

I am angry and sad. I wanted Millicent to have a long life with us, just as I wanted foster kitty Beatrice to have a couple of beautiful years in her new home with our friends  Sharron and David. I know this is just how life works, but it sucks. I have some other lovely things to post about (we have eight foster kittens here right now!) and I will, but today I am just hurting for our sweet cat. All we can do now is give her as much love as possible for whatever time she has left to us. And then she will go join Beatrice, and our old fluffy orange guy Julius, and all the other beloved pets on the other side.

Just a beautiful little kitty soul.