Sad Times at Ketelsen West...

We found out this week that one of our cats, Lance, has an inoperable tumor.  At feeding time Tuesday night, we noticed he was wheezing heavily.  Thinking he had an upper respiratory infection, we quarantined him and gave him a dose of antibiotics and got him to the vet early Wednesday.  He didn't have a temperature, but was having trouble breathing and the vet felt a bit of a bump on his neck.  The x-ray revealed a tumor involved with is trachea.  They referred us to an emergency vet, and they took a biopsy, revealing it was cancer, but couldn't tell the origination or how fast it would grow.  They also said surgery would be difficult, and not likely to extend his life, so we brought him home, where we intend to care for him as long as he is comfortable.  In the time since, there have been long periods where he gets along fine, so it is hard to say how long we'll have him with us.

Vicki discovered Lance one evening as she was coming home.  Turning the corner down the street, her headlights lit up the blur of a kitten diving into a storm drain as she passed.  Keeping an eye on him as she passed the next few days, she started leaving him food when she saw him eating dirt!  After a few weeks of this, she saw him bleeding after getting into a fight or being hit by a car, so trapped him in our Havahart trap.  We kept him in our guest bathroom where he was a little ferocious wildcat, hissing, spitting and letting us know he had claws.  Vicki read Lance Armstrong's biography to him to get him used to us, leading to his name.  About to give up taming him, we finally tried the vet's suggestion of putting a towel over him to get him to relax.  Thinking this was crazy as he expressed his contempt for us as we approached him, as soon as the towel was over him, he went limp in our arms and we could handle him without fear.  While he would sit with us in the living room, he would leave as soon as he could, seeking his solitude.  He eventually moved into our garage, the only cat not regularly spending nights in the house.  He is the gentlest, sweetest thing, but just so shy, both from people and the other cats.  Most visitors never see him as the slightest new noise has him running for cover...

So we're sad knowing his time with us is limited, but we're striving to make him comfortable.  He got zonked out on catnip yesterday, and we allowed him back into his garage today - it is what he wants for now.  We're grateful for any time with him we can get.