Wishnwhiskers Sir Spoticus got his wings today...

Most of you have only recently met the cat called Spot, but he had been on earth for almost 15 years, and never met a person he didn't like!

Turkish Van cats can sometimes be tempermental, and Spot was no exception...but he only showed that side of him at the vets, or when having his belly furs combed.

The rest of the time he was a purrmachine extraordinare and the king of head bunts, often sending eyeglasses askew or making the recipient of his bunts bite their tongue!

He was born on June 27, 1994 and was a celebrated show cat in his day~~ by the time he met Teri, through Mike--Spotty's breeder and Teri's new husband, he was 6 years old and semi-retired from his show career, only coming out once in a while for the "Veteran's" rings.

Teri found him rather lumbering and placid compared to her greyhound Cornish Rex. But she grew to love his sweet, quiet demeanor and while he never reciprocated the affection the CRex showered on him, he made for a nice snuggle companion for all of them.

He never spent the night under the bedcovers like the heat seeking Rex, but had his place of honor on the bookshelf headboard of Mike and Teri's bed and sometimes even managed to steal a pillow sometime during the night, allowing the humans to have just a corner for their head...

After Mike died in 2007, Teri knew how special Spot had become to her and she showered him with love and affection because she knew, he too missed his man! The about a year ago, Spot became very ill and was eventually diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease which had led to pancreatic abscesses. The vets were sure he had a pancreatic tumor and that the exploratory would end with him having to be euthanized, but no...his problems were treatable and so Teri and the vets went to work.

Spot bloomed and thrived and gained back the 5 pounds he had lost, grew all his fur back and was doing very very well. He got his fluids sub q every 3 days, his b12 shots once a month, his Adequan for his spondylosis and cortisone for the IBD. Teri knew he was on borrowed time, but still...the end came quickly and took us all by surprise.

He went in for his yearly exam and labwork and the vet could hear a very loud Grade 4 murmur and his blood pressure was very high! All his labs came back quite good, except he was a little anemic. Because we didn't know the reason for the murmur, we took him off all meds as that could be dangerous and we made a cardiologist appointment.

Off he went to the cardiologists, and his exam and ultrasound showed nothing very serious, and the medicine for the high blood pressure was working, so we started him back on the prednisolone. But he started to fail, losing weight quickly, having trouble walking and so Teri made him a soft bed in the bathroom in her bedroom, with a heating pad and food and water close by so he didn't have to go far to eat and she made him a special litter tray so he could get into it easily and he was having trouble balancing.

He was getting worse and life was not good for him. Even a strong dose of pain medicine last night did not make him feel better and Teri was up with him numerous times during the night to check on him. Today she took him into work with her today and knew in her heart something serious was happening.

We repeated the lab work and he was more anemic than a week ago, and had lost almost 2# in less than 2 weeks. After a heartfelt talk with her vet, and learning that what was most likely happening to Spot, was that his IBD had turned in to Lymphoma (cancer) and that the therapy that he had been on for the past year had held it at bay...until we had to take him off his meds for a week. What he had was most aggressive and further treatment would not have bought Spot and Teri much more time together.

So with everyone's help and support, she made that difficult decision to let Spot go with grace and dignity, which he did right up to the last kisses that she and the vet (yes, the vet too) gave him on his broad and majestic forehead. With Spot's passing, as Teri has learned with the passing of Mike and Bo and the cats that came before...life is precious and we who are left behind have soft and sweet memories to cushion the sadness...

Grieve not, nor think of me with tears,
but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you.
I loved you so, t'was heaven here with you.

Sweet Spotikins, we say farewell, but not goodbye...