Our elder statesman (17YO) began his journey to the Rainbow Bridge today.

He had not been eating well for some time. Three weeks ago, the vet
thought he found a mass and did a needle biopsy on it. The report came
back all clear, but he still wasn't eating normally and was losing
weight. The vet had us try appetite stimulants which seemed to work.
At least he was eating better. He was scheduled for an ultrasound today
to see if they could find anything wrong inside without being invasive.

During the ultrasound, he was so nervous and jumpy that the radiologist
asked for Smokey to have a very light anesthetic to settle him down long
enough for his ultrasound to be completed. That was done. During the
ultrasound, they found 4 different cancerous masses inside. While they
were bringing him out of anesthesia he just stopped breathing. The vet
intubated him and tried to revive him without success.

We had known for some time that Smokey was slowing down and withdrawing
from us so we think he knew it was time. At least passing as he did, he
wasn't in too much pain at the end.

I'll post some memories of Smokey in the next few days.


Sam, closely supervised by Mistletoe