Nat's fatal history

Natty's surgery (5/27/07: 12 muscle resection of his right leg..Grade III fibrosarcoma) was his only treatment. Because it involved a twin primary and the gluteus, the only possible additional surgery was a hemipelvectomy. Nat was our last outdoor cat ... and so, we tried for a last summer. He had a wonderful summer, chasing chipmunks and squirrels. Tumor (10x12cm) resurfaced 8/1/07. We knew then that we were on borrowed time. He had, in spite of everything, a pleasant enough fall. By late November, the mass began to heave and flatten. Because I feared rupture or leakage, I spent most nights with him in the living room ... in front of the woodstove. Both the warmth and the dancing flames seemed comforting. I began to feel like the family dog. The young brother and sister (Ben and Ivy) shared space with us, cleaning Natty vigorously for much of each night.

Two weeks ago, he began to have tense spasmodic episodes. Amitryptilline (5mg) seemed to calm him. He was eating well, defecating and voiding ... but these episodes recurred after deep sleep or voiding. I feared pelvic involvement and sciatic nerve impingement.

Tuesday, he came up the stairs in the middle of the night, butted heads with me, and played in the sleeping bag. He was his old self ... it terrified me. I hadn't seen him this happy in a year. At noon he went out on his porch and spent 1/2 hour taking long, deep breaths ... ate lunch, went to his litter box and collapsed in a spastic, screaming ball. I had 4 syringes of Burprenex left from his surgery ... I gave them all to him ... nothing stopped his agony. I wrapped him tightly in a thermal blanket and sat with him for an hour, trying to calm him. Because of his enormous strength and health, he wasn't even sedated by the medication. So acute was his pain that he kept conscious throughout. I called his surgeon, wrapped Natty up in his carrier, and drove an hour to have him killed.

I had dug his grave last May, shored it up with boards and tarped it ... in case of winter death. I begged him, when I brought wood into the living room during his surgical convalescence, to stay with us to see the wood burned in winter. So I got home in the dying light, shovelled through the mounds of snow and ice, and buried my dear friend.

12 yrs ago, when we were driving Natty to his new home, my friend who runs a shelter from her house (she is a public relations person who has placed more than 20,000 cats in 25 years), called to us: "Take care with vaccinations ... something is going very wrong." Not one of Natty caretakers, when asked repeatedly addressed these concerns. I have read hundreds of professional articles, interviewed researchers, met with manufacturers and know that for Natty's entire life, the profession has known the risk. How many of the articles end with "Is this an ethical issue?" and answer "No ... because clients couldn't understand the risk-benefit."

Think of it: 12 cats die of melamine tainted food--and that is frontpage news. Hundreds of thousands of cats die hideous deaths from VAS--and that isn't.


Carole