This has been just a terrible few weeks.  On Wednesday night, Nipper, our 17 year old cat, got out and was out all night.  She showed up yesterday morning limping.  A visit to the vet confirmed that she had broken her back leg.    The vet recommended that was amputate her leg, as he didn’t think she’d do well with surgery to fix it because of her age – he said that cats, even old ones, adjust really well to doing things on three legs.  We talked to him, talked to each other and agreed.  They scheduled it for today, and gave us pain killers for her overnight.  She was ok – she was wasted from the drugs, but eating and drinking and purring. 

Larry took her to the vet this morning, and they did pre-surgical bloodwork.  And found out she had diabetes – and they couldn’t do the surgery.  The vet felt that it would take weeks to stablize her and that he couldn’t do surgery before that.  There was only one thing we could do - this afternoon we said good-bye to Nipper.

I found Nipper at work when she was a kitten – she was living in the landscaping right outside the entrance and people were feeding her.  She was so tiny, and the vet that examined her said that her early kittenhood would prevent her from going into heat or having children – so no need to get her fixed.    We moved to the country, and Nipper was immediately knocked up – had one kitten on Andrew’s bed in the middle of the night.   And about 6 weeks later, she got out – and got pregnant again.  This time she had about 8 kittens – we kept one, and found homes for the rest.  And then we got her fixed. 

Nipper was an amazing cat – very loving and was such a member of the family.  She loved head butting everyone – including the dogs.  Her favorite food was shrimp, and when I ate dinner she sat behind me on the chair just in case I had hand outs.    She was starting to slow down a bit, but still I’d see her outside running and watching birds.  She loved my spinning chair and slept on it most of the time.   I had her for 17 years – she was born the same year as Cieara, the boys were just 4 and 7 when we got her, and I hadn’t met Larry yet.  She’s been part of my life so long that I don’t remember a time I didn’t have her.

We are so sad – the loss of two pets in two weeks is just too much.    Our house is definitely emptier tonight.  And it will never be the same without her.