Patience and Perserverance

I've had a lesson this past month in these two p-words (remember my resolutions?). My little cat, who was diagnosed with cancer in November, had rebounded, and was doing very well throughout December and early January. Then, bam! Two bad weeks she was still recovering from when we went to the veterinary ophthalmologist last week and the veterinary oncologist this week. She lost both the half pound she put on after the chemotherapy started working, and a half pound more. A whole pound. That was twenty percent of her body weight. The oncologist ran bloodwork, which she had done literally one month before, when Little Miss was doing so well and before the bad times.

And her kidney values came back better. Yes, even after the weight loss, the enema, the other nastiness she had to endure. One kidney value is now in the normal range, the other, while still elevated, is 20 points lower.

This little girl, with her sad history of being abandoned when her owner moved away, mauled and nearly killed by two big brown dogs, the blood clot, the chronic renal failure, and now the cancer, is fighting so dang hard. She hasn't used up her nine lives and she's not ready to go yet. Her regular vet didn't think she'd make it through Thanksgiving. Her acupuncture vet didn't think she'd make it through Christmas.Yet here she is, fighting. Perservering.

And teaching me some valuable lessons about being patient with myself, with nature, with life. About rolling with the punches and struggling to get back up again, but getting up nonetheless. Patience to make sure she takes those 11 medicines a day. Patience to hope and pray, really hard.

I don't know how long she'll be with me, but I treasure every day with her.

Lalecka, June 8, 2007

February 5, 2012