LiveStrong 2012

 Today we purr, that one day there will be a cure for cancer.  

 

We remember those who came before, who left us too soon.

Callie

evil bone cancer 1988

 

Beloved Maggie

evil bile duct cancer 2005

Best friend Colby

evil liver and pancreatic cancer 2008

Lewis smarty pants

evil lymphoma 2008

 

 We love you and miss you.

LIVESTRONG

Today we remember those who came before.  Those we lost to cancer.

Our woofie Callie was born in 1980.  He was good pals with Morgan, mom's first cat and soul mate.  Callie was a beautiful boy who was diagnosed with bone cancer when he was 8 years old.  He had a rapidly growing tumor on one of his hind legs.  It was very aggressive and he was only with our family for 3 weeks after his diagnosis.  He left for the Bridge in the summer of 1988.

Maggie was the light of mom and dad's life.  She was found, hungry and lost in a local boathouse back in 1998, only a few short months after moms beloved Morgan went to the Bridge.  When she started getting ill in the fall of 2005, mom and dad did not want to believe she could be leaving.  They did EVERYTHING they could to save her, but during diagnostic surgery, she was found to have an extremely aggressive form of bile duct cancer and the v-e-t said the kindest thing to do was not recover her from her surgery.  Mom and dad still miss her every day.

Colby was the woofie who came before me.  She was 6 years old when she was adopted from the Humane Society in 2000.  Mom and dad waited 2 years after wonderdogborzoiextraordinaire Gracie went to the Bridge before adopting another woofie.  Colby lived a very long and wonderful life, but she started getting ill in the winter of 2008 and she was diagnosed with liver and pancreatic cancer.   She went to the Bridge on March of 2008 at the age of 14.

Lewis arrived one fall day in 1999 and just moved in on the family.  He was like Cory...black panther kitty on the outside with solid Meezer under the hood.  Colby and Lewis were best friends. It was Lewis who taught Colby how to hunt squirrels.  When Colby passed away, Lewis was never the same.  Lewis started losing weight and then started failing in the summer of 2008 very quickly.  He passed away in August 2008.

We wag our tails and purr that there will one day be a cure for cancer.

Here is a slideshow that was created by members of the CatBlogosphere with special thanks to Samantha, Clementine and Maverick's mom.  Big thank you's to Milo and Alfie's mom and Maggy and Zoey's mom for all their work bringing us all together today.

Tag Yourself Thursday- 6x6 meme

Here we go with our random 6th folder, 6th picture meme. No one tagged us as far as we can remember, but we didn't want to miss out on the fun. The good thing about having a big family is that we can tag each other! Once we saw the the 6th folder was the "Colby" folder we had to play.

This is a picture of my guardian angel dog Colby. This is a special picture because it was taken in April of 2006. I was only a few weeks old at the time. My mom had recently found my momma on petfinder.com and my mom and dad came to visit us at the foster home, near Tillamook. We couldn't go home yet because my momma was still nursing 6 kittens, so we were visited a couple of times while we waited for all the kittens to be weaned. This was the visit where they decided to take me home too. All of my other brothers and sisters were adopted but no one had adopted me. My mom and dad didn't want to separate me from my momma so that's why we both ended up together forever.

After our visit, my mom and dad found this little beach nearby so Colby could have some fun too, so this picture was taken on the Saturday after they visited me and momma but couldn't take us home yet.

As a bonus, in the same folder is a picture of weensy little me sitting next to my momma at the foster home that same day.

Two weeks later we went home!

Fierce Fighter Friday

There have been many a fierce fighter in my family, many are featured on my side bar. I will focus today on those who have crossed the Bridge since last Christmas. Every year my mom and dad hang our stockings by the fire. For those who came before, their stockings are hung on a garland around a window. This year, we will be hanging 4 more stockings on the garland. Colby, Benjamin, Lewis and Michelangelo. I have already written remembrances of my dear Colby, Benjamin and Lewis. I have not yet written about Michelangelo "Mikey"...because it's so hard.

Michelangelo "Mikey" came to the family long before I was born. He was found in late winter of 1992, less than 2 years after Roger Ramjet left us. My dad found him in the most unlikely place...on the freeway median strip. He had been hit by a car and was left for dead. My smart dad thought he didn't really look dead, so he stopped and was stupid (according to my mom) and fetched him off the freeway. Mikey was a mess. He had a fractured pelvis and awful wounds. The Vet said that he likely wouldn't live because his bowels wouldn't move because there was terrible nerve damage. My mom said, no...he will live...she just believed in this little boy that looked so much like Roger Ramjet...the nose spot had to be a sign. When he finally produced that improbable poop, everyone did the happy dance.

Mikey did live. He was called Miracle Mikey for a long long time. It was a tough road to recovery, but my mom and dad worked with Mikey and nursed him back to health...his nerve damage wasn't so severe after all. He was my mom's baby. No one messed with Mikey, or there was hell to pay.

Mom and dad took in a couple of strays, a dog...a cat...and they picked on Mikey. They were placed in other nice homes. If you couldn't get along and play nice in the sandbox with Mikey...forget it. My mom said this was because even though he was a tough cookie...he was frail and any rough play could jeopardize him.

According to my mom, he was the sweetest cat on the planet...she loved him so much it hurt. My mom worked really hard to get the picture above with Mikey in the tulips...she took over 50 pictures to get just the right one.

When he started having trouble with his injuries catching up to him she did everything she could to help him. He needed enemas...and laculose all the time. Finally, things just stopped working at all. He was 17 years old.

I always liked Mikey and Mikey liked me sort of. My momma Ellie tried so hard to win over Mikey but he was not going for either of us. My mom said not to take it personally because Mikey was so in love with Maggie that he couldn't fall in love with us. But he did like us. I'm sure of it.