Another Loss

As some of you know, Elf, one of our older cats, has been sick for a few months now. When Mara and I came home from having dinner with John tonight, I was sad to discover that she had passed away in our shower today. I can't explain it, but somehow I knew what I was going to find the moment I walked in the door.

Elf had been on a roller coaster the last few weeks. There were days when she would be better, but then we would get busy and not pay as much attention to her, and she would go downhill again. I guess her body just finally gave out just two weeks shy of hers and Brownie's seventh birthday. :(

It started a few months ago when she was throwing up daily. We didn't take her to the vet at that time because she was maintaining her weight. One day, she stopped throwing up, so we thought she was better. Then, over the course of a couple of weeks, Elf lost a ton of weight. She went from being a 17-pound cat to only weighing 12 pounds. That combined with her acting lethargic prompted us to take her to the vet. Apparently, she stopped throwing up because she stopped eating. The vet thought she might have fatty liver disease, but her bloodwork didn't support that theory. We were supposed to take her in for X-rays and possibly a sonogram, but she was acting better. Plus, the other cats reacted so harshly to her when she came back from the vet, we felt like it would be more torture to her to feel like an outcast again. So, we don't know what happened, but we're pretty confident it had something to do with her liver. I can't help but wonder if the vet might have been able to do something to save her if we had taken her sooner the first time or just taken her back later. At the same time, there might have been nothing we could have done. I guess we'll never know.

I really hope that Brownie is OK because I don't know what I would do if she wasn't. This is a time when I am really thankful to have the "kittens" (Pixie & Puck) since I think they'll help Brownie recover.

I kept thinking I needed to take some pictures of Elf the past couple of months, but I kept holding out hope that she would get better, and I would take pictures then. So, regretfully, I don't have any fairly recent pictures of her, but here are some pictures of Elf at her prime.

Below is a picture of Elf with her sister Brownie.

And here's Elf with Puck & Pixie.