Tis in my memory, locked

Our sweet cat, Ophelia, took her leave this summer.  She was almost 12 years old.

We'd been having trouble with her eye weeping a bit, then one day I noticed her breath was really bad.  Like, can smell it across the room and knock you over kinda bad.  With a little research I found that the reasons for this are all pretty terrible, so we headed to the vet.

Our vet, Leslie Williams, at Gunbarrel has known Ophie almost all her life.  We trust her implicitly.  She saw us and was able to look in Ophie's mouth (something I couldn't do) and found a large, infected fissure where a tooth once was.  It was obviously painful for my li'l girl.  Ophie was put on meds and came back for an appointment to clean out the infected tissue as well as cut away any bone int he upper jaw that was infected.  Biopsies were taken to see if it was cancer.


It was.

After a terrible phone call, Dr Williams brought Josh and I in to discuss the diagnosis and what our options for Ophie's best life would be.  Ophie had an aggressive bone cancer in her face.  She gave us a month's worth of meds to keep her comfortable and to give us time to make a decision.

Two weeks later, while my parents were visiting and could stay home with the boys, we took Ophie back for a check up.  She did not come home.

We found that the cancer had continued to spread aggressively.  She was in pain and there was nothing we could do to even keep her comfortable.

I've never had to make this kind of decision.  Neither had Josh.  Dr Williams walked us through what all would happen.  She was incredibly kind and gentle with us.  Never once, for a single moment, did we feel rushed or pressured.  We were given all the time we wanted to say goodbye to our sweet, sweet Ophelia.  We petted her, leaned on each other and cried.  It was peaceful.  She just went to sleep, and finally my hand on her side stopped rising and falling with her breath.

She was my first shelter rescue.  My first cat.  Josh and I will always keep a very special place in our hearts for her.

The kitten at the Bay Area Humane Society that would be named Ophelia