Farewell, Princess Pixel. Godspeed.

This past Wednesday, 16December, I noticed that Pixel seemed to be having a bit of difficulty breathing. It was late in the evening, so I brought her in to the vet the next afternoon (yesterday) to see what was going on.

Initially, the veterinarian thought it might be asthma, but Pixel was pretty stressed, so the doc wanted to keep her overnight to get blood samples and make sure the cortisone shot helped her lungs. Later that evening, though, I got a call... The doc said there was fluid around our Pixel-purr's lungs, and that she'd drawn off almost half a pint. 

Something else was wrong...

This morning, I got another call from the vet, saying that she earnestly recommended that I take Pixel down to the emergency vet in Greensboro, NC, for more testing. Pixel rested in my lap, getting lots of strokes and skritchies, almost all the way down - a 90 minute drive.

Unfortunately, Pix's breathing continued to worsen, and when the new sonogram and x-rays were taken, the doc found a large mass in her chest, along with serious irregularities on her lungs.

Oh, what a hard decision! The doc said that even with a good reaction to aggressive chemo (suspected lymphoma cancer), Pixel only had maybe another six months. She was only about 5 years old; I feel like I'd just done this with her older brother, Romeo, when he died at 19. I did not want to have to do this again - especially so SOON!

But today, at about 11am ET, Practically Perfect Princess Pixel of the Prodigious Purr went across the Rainbow Bridge to join her brother Romeo. I told her how very much we all loved her and that she had to tell him he was supposed to take good care of her until we could join them.

And then I held her and loved her as she went across...

Bye, bye, Picklepurr. I love you. I miss you already.

UPDATE:

• She had the most actively expressive tail I've ever seen on a cat
• She loved to carry on long, involved conversations with her people
• She had the cutest unique way of lap-lap-lap-sip-sip-sipping water
• She knew when she wanted your skritchies, and when she didn't
• She loved to play "come away closer," and you never knew if she'd allow you to pet her
• She had the most awesome, satisfied and smug kitty "I am SO happy that my humans are properly worshipful" smile I've ever seen on a cat

(submitted to the Friday Ark at the Modulator)