RIP My Precious Gabby

I've been going over and over in my head how I was going to start this post...how I was going to write it.  Just like the decisions that were made...none of it is easy.  As some of you know I took Gabby into the vet yesterday and she didn't leave with us.  I had an overwhelming feeling that the news wasn't going to be good but I didn't think she wouldn't come home with us either, you know!?

She had been losing weight.  Not that she had weighed all that much to begin with.  I thought at her heaviest she weighed about 7 pounds but at her last visit (and it had been a while) she weighed 8 pounds.  We noticed we was losing weight so naturally I tried to give her anything she WOULD eat...TO eat.  We went with wet/canned food and she LOVED it.  Very soon her sunken flat tummy started 'feeling' more like a cat tummy that was satisfied and full.

Thru EVERYTHING Gabby didn't miss a beat.  She's always been the sweetest, happiest cat I've ever known.  Even at the vet's office she was purring and giving kisses to everyone.  Which made things even worse when it came to those choices.

The results of the X-Rays showed that her stomach was 3 times the size of a normal cats stomach but it was filled with liquid.  Long story short - after other tests and process of elimination - her vet said everything pointed to Liver Cancer.  We were crushed.  We are still crushed.

The vet said 'it' was inevitable.  Whether it was 1 day, a week, or a few.  Her little body was doing everything it could to 'get thru it' and 'fight'.  Because she was so small and lost so much muscle and because we had already been giving her wet/canned food there wasn't anything that could bring back the muscle she had lost.  When they weighed her yesterday she weighed 6 pounds.  I know for a fact she had gained weight in the past week because of the food and the uninterrupted meal time we were giving her.  We put Charlie in another room while she was eating so she could concentrate on the food.  I'm assuming that there was about 2 pounds of weight in her stomach but that is just my guess.  So I don't know if that means she weighed roughly 3 to 4 pounds when she did lose the weight initially.

The vet told us that she could 'turn' with a snap of a finger.  That she was 'walking on a cliff' and one step to the right or the left could cause additional issues.  We continued talking about everything and came to the realization with our house hold and family that she had several potential obstacles that could come into play including stairs she could fall down, another cat and 3 dogs that could play too rough with her not-knowing, as well as other issues.  DH and I both work during the day and would hate to have come home from work to find that she fell down the stairs or injured herself while we weren't there, you know!?

The vet told us that we were already doing what he would have suggested us to do.  She wouldn't get better - only worse.  Of course I was torn because she was our furkid but also because she was still purring to the very end.  It just didn't seem right.  I'm just not sure what else to say.  I cried for HOURS.  This morning I thought I was going to 'make it' until I heard the end of the song BABE by Styx and I completely broke.  The photo above is one of my faves of her - if not MY very favorite.  She's such a sweetheart.  We adopted her when she was roughly two in 2003.  We figure she was about 13 years old.  We will always remember her.

I set up Facebook Pages for each of our furkids.  This morning I changed hers to a Remembrance Page.  I would appreciate it if you would LIKE her on Facebook.  I know I try and keep this blog uplifting and positive but it's been an awful time in the Bliss House Hold.  I just really needed a place to write.  Write about her.  Write about everything.  Thanks for understanding and reading.  

I will say that we've received TONS of condolences via email, text, Facebook, Instagram, thru our co-workers, radio & VoiceOver Friends, and it's been amazing!  Thank you so much!  May our sweet, precious Gabby Rest In Peace.