We'll miss you Georgie!!! You were a cool cat. You always acted like you were a dog, and you were as big as a small dog. You were unique and had a big heart. RIP
George was good with the kids, for the most part. He was so chilled out, that nothing seemed to bother him too much. But if you ticked him off, watch out!
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Jan 2009
George's final moments
On Monday night (President's Day) George wasn't himself. He was just laying on the floor, looking uncomfortable. He would look at us and meow very low and loud. I thought that maybe he had come down with something and decided that if he wasn't better by Tuesday we would go see the vet.
On Tuesday around lunch, we decided George needed to see the vet. He was just sitting on his bed all morning and not moving. This was very unlike him. He loved being part of the family when the day started.
I took him to the vet and within 10 minutes one of the receptionists told me he was sick and that they needed to do some more tests. His temperature was a little low and he was huffing and puffing a little bit. After discussing the costs for xrays and bloodwork, I told them to proceed.
Within another 10 minutes I was called into one of exam rooms and I knew it wasn't good. The Vet came in the room with two xray films. She showed me his lungs. She pointed out the fluid in the lungs and she also pointed to an odd mass on the edge of the lungs. She sampled the fluid to examine under a microscope. She said it is never a good outcome when the lungs start to fill with fluid. She said there were many abnormal blood cells (looked exactly like cancer cells). As she was extracting the fluid, the color of the fluid was very dark red like blood (but wasn't blood) and the vet said that was a very bad sign. She was 95+ % positive it was cancer. And it was probably liver cancer if she had to guess. George had several of the signs of cancer: He had lost 4lbs of lean muscle mass which you could feel on his lower back, he was severely anemic and very dehydrated. His blood pressure was low.
The vets explained that the cancer was probably dormant in his body and was recently activated. Cats have the ability to cope with cancer before it gets to the dangerous stages.
Riverside vet was awesome and so was Dr. Amy Richardson. They were very compassionate and patient as we discussed George's fatal disease. She suggested we make prints of the paw prints in plaster to remember him by.
