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i had to put him down Tuesday morning.
gary was a stray when i met him outside my apartment in midtown atlanta. 2 yrs old, not fixed, but not feral. he'd let me feed him & touch him. i fed/watered him outside for about 3 weeks, along w/ mr. jack ( jack died last year from chronic renal failure). hot summer, both came to me asking for help w/in 2 days of each other. their neck skin "peaked" when pinched & didn't return immediately to normal, so they were both clearly dehydrated.
they moved in, & we bought a house because we were getting crowded. gary became a fixture in the social structure quickly, a sweet boy.
@ 6 y.o., gary got a lump in his "yoke" region. cancer. vet said it was probably caused by rabies vaccine, a 1/10000 shot. since my cats all stay inside, i quit getting rabies innoc's. (the dogs still get them.) 3 surgeries, it kept coming back.
i took gary to auburn university. they kept him 6 weeks, ran a plastic tube seeded w/iridium, in an s-shaped pattern under the skin in the affected area. he came home w/ a patch of grey/white hair over the area, but cured of his cancer. his nick became "funky spot"
@ 8, gary developed stomatitus, a chronic & painful lesion of the throat. 2 conventional surgeries, 2 laser surgeries, continuous pain. he dropped from 15 # to under * #. i got a partial recovery feeding through a tube implanted in his neck & 100CC's lactated ringers subQ everyday for 6 weeks.
eventually i stumbled on a connection to feline herpes & began treating him w/lysine therapy (covered in depth in another thread, responding to Beware the Beastman)
@ 14 he was diagnosed w/mitral valve failure. I've been maintaining him w/ diuretics and various heart med's for six months, much longer than i expected.
last friday, sensing the end was nearing, i made the decision to let him go, rather than risk death from a bloodclot, which is very painful ( i have emerg pain meds on hand to see him through it, but it cd have happened when i was out)
i prepped him w/ .2 ml of butorphanol @ 2 mg per to calm him for the drive. he lay in my lap & i sang to him as i drove, certainly looking like an idiot to other drivers. once there, the vet administered an anaesthetic, i held him w/his face resting in my palm as he fell asleep. when he was well under, the vet admininistered 3 ml of beuthanasia & i held him until he passed. he died very peacefully in my arms.
i buried gary in my abandoned veg garden, next to 'tonio (foto in sig) i normally don't bring animals home, i'm an atheist & don't believe in afterlife, but gary was very special.
gary had a tough life, w/ much hardship, but he was a wonderful, tough, plucky, cheerful & loving friend throughout. he never blamed me for not making things right, nor complained or got angry about the intrusive med procedures.
sorry for the long post, but gary deserves tribute.
i loved him while alive & will miss him now he's gone.
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