Jamie

Today is one of the saddest days I ever had to endure. Jamie, my beloved 14 years old cat will be going over the Rainbow bridge. I had her for only a little over 3 years. Her original mom was a client of a Veterinary hospital that I worked at. She was dying of ovarian cancer, and was more worried about her cats than herself. I was unable to take in both because one of them was FIV positive. No body else wanted a 11 year old diabetic cat, with almost no teeth, overweight, and a bit of a priss cat. I took in Jamie fully aware that I will try to get her adopted out. At my vet hospital, we focus a lot on dental health, and I'm the primary technician for dentistry. I gave up one Saturday to do a dental on Jamie, it took me over 2 hours to work on her teeth. Reason why, she had ALL of her teeth, but more than half was rotten, or broken or in a really bad shape due to diabetes. She was the longest dental I've ever did. Little did I know, she'll be in my life.
Three days after I acquired Jamie, her mom passed away. Needless to say, my softie heart gave out, and I decided to make Jamie my own. It was tough because Mocha, my other cat that I adopted from Rochester, is the alpha cat, and with the two of them....they fight. Jamie is not a lap cat, or affectionate. In a way, she acts like she's just a wandering cat swatting at any cat that crosses her path.
I've learned to separate Mocha and Jamie. After I started dating Roy, he wanted to know about cats as he never owned one (in fact, he was allergic). Jamie was perfect because she had the classic signs of a neglected health type of cat (the previous owner just used her as companionship, and never really took care of Jamie's health, weight, diabetes, etc). Due to Jamie's diabetes, I have to give her insulin twice daily. Roy got over his fear of needles and was able to be a pro at giving insulin when I came home from work late.
Less than a year after I got Jamie, Jamie started to show signs of vomiting a lot more frequent, and it was unusual. I know she gets hairballs frequently due to obsessive grooming habits. I took her to a Internal Medicine specialist of where I worked. They did an ultrasound of her abdomen. Found a small mass. It turned out to be Mast Cell Tumor. In other words, Cancer. After talking to several doctors, I was given 4 to 6 months for this type of cancer, and 6 to 8 months if I opt surgery. I felt that Jamie has lived a full life, and deserved to have more full life instead of being in pain. So I opted out on surgery. The good news was, because I got Jamie's weight from 17 pounds to 10, she's not diabetic anymore.
Months went by, and Jamie was showing no signs of slowing down. I moved in with Roy, a few times during my first summer living with him, Jamie started to get sicker and sicker. She was getting sick on a daily basis. Her tumor became more visible. This has been over a year since the diagnosis. We were expecting this. Then we decided to give her another couple days. After those couple days were up, she bounced back to her normal bubbly self.
Fast forward, yet another year, to May 2007. Jamie started to show signs of slowing down. She started to breath funny, breathing with more effort. I took her to the vet, and discovered that she has congestive heart failure. It won't be much longer.
The last week of June 2007, she refused to eat, and would just sleep all day, wouldn't walk around anymore. It was getting really obvious that she was losing more weight, not interested in catnip - her favorite treat. After talking to Roy, I made the decision that it's time. I called for an appointment for Saturday. After I called, Jamie walked up to me, and just stared at me in the eyes saying, "I'm ready now. I cannot wait 5 more days."
I called them again, and made the appointment earlier.

Roy and I said our goodbyes last night, and I'm saying goodbye today. She's special because she was the cat that no one wanted. She was my first special needs kitty, she was my first cat that had cancer, and now she's my first cat that I had to say good bye.

Today, I'm taking her out for a little walk, get a breath of fresh air and let her eat all the grass that she wants. I will reflect on the memories that's always going to be in our hearts.

I love you Jamie.

Jamie April 1993 - July 3, 2007. Have a good journey over the Rainbow.

R and D