She still ate her treats, and spent time with us, but then she would disappear. I would find her curled up by one of the heat vents. Thinking that she was cold, I didn't give it another thought. Many of our cats through the years, had done the same thing. She was getting on in years, with her 16th birthday fast approaching.

 

It was only days later that we noticed she was having trouble swallowing her food. Peanut had always had a monster appetite, and loved eating. But now, even though she was still first in line to be fed, she could hardly get anything down. We knew there was something very seriously wrong, so off to the vet we went.

 

The first thing he found was a lump under her chin! How did we miss it? She was still held and petted throughout the day. How could we not have felt it too, when we were scratching her under the chin? They did the blood work and we took her home again. The results came back and we were told that she had a severe hyperthyroid problem, and that they could not chance anesthetizing her to do a biopsy of the lump. They decided to do a fine needle aspirit, which meant that they would stick a needle in the lump and try to draw some of the contents out, to analyze.

 

Through these few days when this was happening, Peanut was getting thinner and thinner. She choked on the food now, with every bite. She was down to 5 pounds, the day they did the fine needle aspirit. Then the phone call came, and the news was devastating!

 

Salivary mandibular cancer! No white cells were found at all. It was very fast acting. Our options - to get her hyperthyroidism under control and let them try to remove the growth. If successful, she would have maybe six more months maximum. The alternative? Unthinkable!

 

The vet suggested we think about it over the weekend and let him know our decision on Monday. We cried, and we talked, and we cried some more. We hugged and held this precious little bundle of fur now so very weak, and we knew what we had to do. She was slowly starving and to make her go through all that the vet had suggested, would not have been fair to her.

We called him back and told him we were bringing her in that day. I have never seen my husband weep, like he did in that office. We were both so distraught! This was his friend, and he was going to miss her so much, and she and I had been together for so long .

 

When we went home, we thought that it was over. We were waiting for her ashes to come home to complete her story.

However..... Peanut had other ideas.

 

Whether she didn't realize that she had passed over, or whether she was waiting for ET's arrival, we'll never know. We do know that she roamed our home for the next ten days. I saw her several times, by my feet, running through the room, felt her sit behind me on my chair. My hubby felt her scratching his back, the way she did when she was going to jump up on his shoulders and he saw our fiber optic lamp move to the shape of a kitty walking through the fibers.

 

Ten days later, our ET joined her and that night, while getting ready for bed, I was almost knocked off my feet by a ghostkitty running full tilt past me. I guess our Baby was saying good-bye. She hasn't been seen since.

 

Peanut's ashes rest on our bookcase, along with ET's and Radar's.

 

This little kitty has left such a giant hole in our hearts.