Isabelle is no more

Yesterday was Isabelle's last day. She was a good cat, but she'd been failing for the last few months, and in the last week she went drastically downhill. Her digestive system wasn't working and she was losing weight. It seemed as though she grew more and more frail daily.

There is only a part-time vet in this tiny town and s/he is "Not Taking New Patients," so we've been either driving Isabelle to another town for care - which is traumatic even for healthy cats - or paying for an out-of-town vet to come for a house call. Either way, in these lean times we can ill-afford such bills. And despite all the tests and treatments, our cat was getting steadily worse.

When I handed her over to the man at the animal shelter (we do have a county animal shelter that will euthanize sick pets for a fee), he promised that they'd take good care of her.

I hope so.

Now I realize that the sadness I feel at losing a small felius domesticus is utterly insignificant when weighed against all the suffering and wrong in the world, but I still think it is appropriate to acknowledge a good cat.

'Bye, Isabelle. Thanks for being a friend.