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, feeding one of our colonnies of cats, a white thing came running through the long grasses towards me!  I stopped feeding the other cats and gasped in horror at what I saw.  Not only what I 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 hungry.  She tucked into the food together with the other two strays. Once she had finished, 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 this time, we had no cage in the car for her and still had the 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.  We put her inside a large rescue cage and continued to feed the hungry strays. They get breakfast everyday, but one would think they were never fed, with all the wailing that they did.

I had to get her to the vets quickly.  There are vets and there are vets, so I was a little unsure as to which vet would be the best. So I decided to take her to Kelly.  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 I went.  I was a little concerned because I thought this little girl had cancer, but the vet clearly stated that she had been bitten by another animal.  Possibly a dog. Maybe, but somehow I thought not.  Never mind, who was I to question medical professionals.  They knew best, or did they?

I left with tablets and instructions for what I had to do for the next 10 days.  There was no way I could put her back in the field where she was found.  So I 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 I could release her into the house and be with my 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.  I asked the vet again whether this could be cancer.  Her face was a picture.  I was asked why did I think it could be cancer. Well obviously because of the stench, which hadn't improved at all.  Equally when I 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.  Gosh I 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, but then went to her own safe place which she found on a bed downstairs.

I so much wanted her to live and imagined that progress was being made, but sadly it wasn't.  It was just kidology.  I 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 I 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.  It hurt! You rescue 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 would be free from pain and she must have been in so much pain, as she slept in one way 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 came running through the long grasses to me, so she was able to receive the much needed love and care she so much deserved, even though it was only short term.

<---------- From this ear to ending up with no ear at all ---------->

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

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