Saying Goodbye to Perdita

Dita had a growth in her neck.  It had been there for months but was getting bigger so Greg had me take her in a get it removed.

She didn't do well after the surgery.  Waking up from the anesthesia was scary.  She could hardly walk and wanted nothing to do with us.  Once she was wide awake she wouldn't eat or drink.  Over the course of a month she was drinking a little and occasionally eating but she started losing weight, stopped grooming herself, stopped going upstairs and didn't seem to be herself.  I took her back in for the bad news that she had lost 1/3 of her body weight and her jaw was full of growths (probably cancer).  The doctor recommend putting her down that day, but Greg was out of town and we needed time to say goodbye.  The doc was headed out of town for the president's weekend so we scheduled for Tuesday the 21st.  I bawled all the way home.

We waited till Friday to tell the kids and they spent the weekend taking turns with sleeping with her.  It was a hard, long, tear filled weekend.

Tuesday morning they said goodbye, except for Emily and Andrew who went with me.

It was painful to watch Emily especially, I tear up now as I write.  She really loved that cat.  Perdita offered her hours of love and peace when her emotions were in turmoil.  She slept hours on Emmy's pillow then came down to sleep next to Greg once Emmy was asleep.  Whenever Emmy had a rough time I would find Dita and put her next to Emmy and knew that would help more than anything I could say.  Ditten is not so obliging.  I guess she will need to be trained 😉.  Thanks for 13 great years Dita!