Thankful for Pets

Townhall.com ^ | November 24, 2016 | Mona Charen

[exDemMom]

The guy I call “cancer kitty” is snuggling next to me on the sofa right now. Six years ago, my son discovered a mass on the cat’s thigh, and I knew immediately that it was a vaccine-associate sarcoma. (The sarcoma is not actually associated with vaccines, but with injections of any kind.)

The usual treatment for this sarcoma is amputation, but we wanted to save his leg. He has had two MRIs and four surgeries to remove tumors. He has lost a lot of muscle mass, but still has the leg. Sure, he’s gimpy—but he has survived a cancer that often kills cats within a year or two of diagnosis. He has not had a tumor recurrence for three years.

I have two other deathly ill kitties that I do not think will survive for many more months. I will miss them terribly.

[aomagrat]

Wink, my first greyhound at age 5 shortly after I adopted him. The best dog I ever had.

Wink at age 13, shortly before he passed away over 5 years ago. I still mourn.

[DeplorableUs]

I'm so thankful for my buddies. This is Hercules :)

[Slings and Arrows]

Thank you, G-d, for Zia, Deimos, and Misty.

[etabeta]

All our pets accompanied us to the Thanksgiving dinner at a relative’s. Hard to resist their pleading eyes at the table but each each a dinner with turkey, roasted carrots and peas..licked the plates clean. So sorry for those of you who recently lost their babies, we all know too well the pain.

[niteowl77]

We lost our cat buddy of sixteen years the night before Thanksgiving. She had been declining the last couple of years, and the process accelerated these past six months. Over the course of Wednesday she basically began to shut down, and by evening we had her put out of her pain.

She made me her favorite human in the world all of her life and a quarter of mine. You don't replace that.

Mr. niteowl77

[TheConservativeParty]

Aw! Wink knew what a lucky dog he was to be at your house. What a cutie! Great pictures.

[Ditter]

One of our JRT’s, Cookie, 10 years old appeared to have a swelling on the side of her face. The vet found 3 abscessed teeth and removed them, put her on antibiotics for a month. He said if the swelling doesn't go down bring her back. It didn't go down and the vet said she had a tumor under the facial bone. It was cancer and when she started walking around shaking her head from side to side I knew she was in pain. I had to put her down and even with 3 dogs still in the house, it seems quiet here. That was 5 months ago and I really miss her.