As an animal lover and rescuer, there are many times when you are faced with tragic terrible situations.  No days are ever the same and this particular early morning was one of them.  Early January '16, when we were feeding one of our many colonnies of stray cats, a white thing came running through the long grass towards us, We just stopped feeding the other cats and gasped in horror at what we saw.

Not only what we saw, but the stench from this cat was horrendous, this cat smelt worse than the sewers.  She looked ghastly, but obviously she wanted to eat, she was very hungry.  She tucked into the food together with the other stray cats.  Once she had finished eating, I picked her up and wrapped her in the only thing I had to hand and that was my jacket.  She was a gentle soul, but how I felt for her.  Gosh what had happened to her?  Back to the car she was taken, and it was sods law, because on this day we had no cage in the car for her, and still had the other colonies of cats to feed.  Never mind I thought.  She wasn't fighting, so I cradled her and kept her close to my chest, until we got to where our largest colony of cats were located.  Once there, we put her inside a large rescue cage and continued to feed the hungry strays, as they get breakfast everyday, as this new addition looked on.

We had to get her to the vets quickly.  There are vets and there are vets, so we were a little unsure as to which vet would be the best. So we decided to take her to Kelli in Ligourio.  She is a young Greek vet who we have used before in the past and is generally highly rated.  We had nothing to loose, so off we went.  I was a little concerned because we thought this little girl had cancer, but the vet clearly stated that she'd been bitten by another animal, possibly a dog.  Maybe, but somehow we thought not. 

We left with tablets and instructions for what we had to do for the next 10 days.  There was no way we could put her back in the field where she was found.  So we took her home and had a large cage where I made a little bed for her and tried to make it as comfortable as possible, until we could release her into the house and be with our other strays.  She was a very good girl.  She wasn't a cat that moved much either.  This suggested that she was in lots of pain, but perhaps had become used to this pain.  It is a well known fact that all white cats, especially with white ears are prone to cancer.  Daily medications and daily bathing didn't really help much, as the stench from her was as bad ten days later, as the day she was rescued.  The day came when she had to go back to the vet.  We asked the vet again whether this could be cancer.  Her face was a picture.  We were asked why did we think it could be cancer. Well obviously because of the stench, which hadn't improved at all.  Equally when we rescued her, she had the formation of an ear, but as time went on, this ear had almost vanished.  It was all black, smelly and lots of red rawness.  We did feel for PRECIOUS. She was such a darling and a definite precious cat.  When she came back from the vets on this second occasion, she was released from the large cat cage. The other strays didn't harm her.  I think they knew that she was a very sick pussycat. She ate heartily with them, then went to her own safe place which she found on a bed downstairs, where she felt safe and sound.

We so much wanted her to live and imagined that progress was being made, but sadly it wasn't.  It was just kidology.  We sought professional advice from two highly experienced vets, who had been to our area and neutered many of our strays.   Alan replied back and told me what we already suspected and knew.  She had squamous cell carcinoma which was past saving her.  Alan advised that the best thing would be to put her to sleep as soon as possible.  His advice really hurt . . you rescue these strays and want to save them all, but sadly some are past saving.  An appointment was made with our local vet, and interestingly he recognised straight away that she had cancer.  Poor poor PRECIOUS.  A date was made for her to cross over to Rainbow Bridge. She must have been in so much pain, as she slept on one side only and kept her body pretty still wherever she made her bed.

We loved her so much and wanted to give her a chance.  It wasn't meant to be.  But the one and only consolation was that she originally put her trust in us and came running through the long grass towards us, so she was able to receive the much needed love and care she so much deserved, even though it was only for a short term.  We will never forget her.

Cats go to heaven too.  In loving memory of dear PRECIOUS who will always remain in our hearts.  xxxx 

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