Orion Crossed The Rainbow Bridge Options

[kittymomma]

Hi all! I am new to this site. I found it last week after we lost our beautiful 11 yr Orion on October 20, at 12:20PM. He was the most loving and special kittyson anyone could ever have.
Orion was a tiny baby of 6 weeks when we got him in 1996 and very sickly. He had to take meds from the very day we brought him home. But we fell in love with him immediately and my husband started calling him his *son* from the beginning.
Orion grew up to be a BIG boy. At 25 lbs he was our biggest cat. Then he started losing weight and looking ill. We immediately took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with diabetes. We had our ups and downs with that disease for 8 yrs with him. He did pretty well for long periods of time and then the insulin dose would need to be changed. The last year he was regulated very well and we had no problems with his diabetes. In March of this year, I noticed that he looked like he had retained a LOT of fluid in his abdomen. He was really round and sloshy. I am a Vet Tech and I knew there were probably only a handful of things that would cause fluid buildup in the abdomen. An abcess from a cat bite was not out of the question in our house, but I could not find one. My heart sank. The only other likely cause was cancer.
It was one of the times in my life that I was mortified at being right. He was diagnosed with Mastocytoma of the spleen and liver and the Vet at that time gave him 2-3 months. We were devastated. I knew what the diagnosis and prognosis meant. My husband was in denial because he did not know about how cancer moves so quickly in cats.
We cancelled a vacation in May to Walt Disney World for a month, because we knew if he had only 2-3 months to be here, we were NOT going to be gone and leave him for one second! We prayed and stayed with him and kept up with his insulin and feeding him well. He started to lose a little weight slowly and by June he was still thriving. He could still jump and down from the counter and furniture and he was doing really well. After a second ultra sound, we learned the cancer had not grown or spread, this was wonderful news to us. But he started to throw up after meals, so we had to put him on an anti-nauseal med and give him pepcid twice a day. Our lives wwere consumed with caring for him. We are retired so we were here 24/7 and were able to give him his meds exactly on time twice a day and his insulin exacly on time twice a day.
As the Summer went on, he grew skinnier and skinnier, but still had alot of energy and he was doing really well. We took him in every 2 weeks to have the fluid drained from his belly and he seemed to do well with that.
Then, in mid October, he started to slow down and just did not have as much energy and spark. By that time we were up to meds 3 times a day and we literally had spent the entire Summer in the house with him. I went nowhere the whole year. I am slightly disabled anyway and can't walk very long so staying home with my babyboy was something that was easy for me to do. I was with him every minute. He hung out on the computer desk with me when I was online and slept next to me and curled right in to me on the bed when he was feeling particularly sick.
By the 17th of October, we noticed he was peeing on the floor outside his box. My heart sank, that is a very bad sign, when they start peeing outside of the box AND they have cancer. He kept peeing outside of the box that day and the next and was starting to drink voracious amounts of water like he did when he first got diabetes. He had gone in the Vet 3 weeks before this with dehydration and came back fine and did not have another problem until the 17th, Wednesday.
Friday, the 19th was an awful day. He was literally drinking water, then going to the office and peeing immediately. I knew in my heart, then he was in kidney failure. The water was bypassing his kidneys altogether and going right through him. He never seemed to be in any pain though, the whole time. We got him to the Vet and they drained a liter of fluid from his abdomen, gave him some sub-Q fluids and some pain meds to get him through the night. We had called the vet that was to come to our home to euthanize him here. We set it up for Saturday morning, the next day...
We awoke and it was just horrendous. I could not get hold of myself and we prepared a spot with his favorite blanket and he just did not feel good. He was very sick. I gave him pain meds and we lay down with him on the blanket and just cuddled for a while. Then I took him outside for a little walk and he loved to watch the bees and butterflies and the leaves being blown around by the wind.
The Vet arived and ran us through all the paperwork and it was time to say goodbye.
She administered the life ending dose of meds in his abdomen at 11:50AM and we lay with him until he was gone at 12:20PM.
We took him around in a basket so our other 3 cats could see him and say goodbye to their buddy. That was difficult. The other 3 were just freaked by the whole thing and for days acted so strange.
Orion's ashes came back to us on Thursday Oct 25th and we had a rough time with that. My husband finally let go and could not hold it in anymore. Orion had come home and it was not how we had wanted him to come home.
My arms ache to hold my litle kittyboy again. He would wrap his front legs around my neck and hug me.. I miss his soft, silky coat and his scent. He smelled so different than any of our other cats, he had his own special smell. I miss that. I want to hold him so bad and I know that I will have that chance again when I meet him on the Rainbow Bridge, but I am so lonely without him now. Even with the other cats here, it is not the same place without him. He was one of those special cats you get a few times in a lifetime. I have had cats all my life and I have loved them all. But, there a few who for some reason stand out as a cat you had a special bond with. Orion was this kind of cat. We have another in our house right now as well. My Tawny, whom I have been with for 15 yrs is the cat of my heart and she is a comfort to me right now.
Anyway, I wanted to share my story with those who understand. And it was God's guidance that brought me here, just as it was God who gave us the extra 6 months of life with Orion after he was initially given 2-3 months to live. He lived 6 more months and I had prayed with every fiber of my core for that extra time. God answered my prayers with a miracle and he showed me the way to this site.

I love you my little kittyboy! Orion, you are mommy's babyboy!

[kittymomma]

I could not find an edit button to add to a previous post so I guess I will just add another post...This next cat is our naughty kitty, Tinkerbell, who beats everyone up. She is 4 this year and a holy terror! She nips at us and our feet as we go by and she loved to *try* to beat up Orion. She could not, he was too cool and tough for her. He just needed to sit there while she attacked him andf then would put out a paw and wap her hard. She just never learned, kept coming back for more, she is something else, pretty but naughty as all get out!

Tinkerbell, or as I call her Stinkerbell!



Just found the modify button....