Emma 8/2/05-9/14/15

It is a very sad day in our household.  We put our precious, pure-bred, Maine Coon kitty to sleep this morning.  A few weeks ago, we noticed that she had an upper respiratory infection, so we took her to the vet for some medication.  At the same time, we noticed she wasn't eating.  The vet weighed her and found that within just one year, she had lost 2 lbs., which is a lot for a cat.  We thought she would start eating again after her cold subsided, but she didn't.  And now she wasn't drinking water either.  All tests (bloodwork, xrays, ultrasound) came back normal.  The vet mentioned that when reviewing the ultrasound, she noticed one of her kidneys was smaller than the other.  She said that might be due to the beginnings of lymphoma and our next step was to see an oncologist.  I continued to force feed Emma over the weekend and by the end of each feeding, she was clamping her jaw to prevent me from getting more in.  I think it kept giving her a stomach ache, the poor thing.  When looking at a website about feline lymphoma, I noticed that the symptoms mentioned matched hers to a T.  So we knew the inevitable was here.  We stopped giving her food on Saturday evening and instead gave her lots of love the rest of the weekend.  We let her outside to chase the chipmunks and get some fresh air.  We explained to the girls that night that we needed to put Emma to sleep so she wasn't in pain anymore.  Clara is still too young to comprehend what that meant, but Hailey was devastated.  Emma liked to sleep with Hailey at night, so Hailey always felt a stronger bond with her.  Hailey said to me, "I want to be there when the trumpets sound and God raises Emma up to Heaven."  Oh my heart just ached.  Clara and I took Emma in this morning and stayed with her to the end.  It was very peaceful but so very sad.  We love you, Emma kitty, and will miss you very, very much!