On Sept the 5th at 5:30pm MST I had to put my beloved cat " Leo to sleep ...he was also called " Pasha" for persian king. That morning he just did not seem himself,he kept puking everything up that he was trying to eat and just started to keep falling on his side. So we decided that we would take him to the vet to have him checked out. My daughter and I and Leo went on this long car ride to the vet. The whole time we tried to calm Leo by gently talking to him....knowing very well how much he hated to be in a moving car.
At the doctors we had him examined and x-rayed. The doctor could not see anything, so we agreed that Leo be given barium which would show up white on the x-ray all through his intestines...or so we thought. The doctor looked puzzled when she came out of the x-ray room and motioned us to follow her to the x-ray room where she pointed to Leo's x-ray. The barium was surely brightly visible, but did not went much further than his stomach. In fact nothing was going past that point where the barium had abruptly stopped moving.
The diagnosis was as you might have already guessed it yourself....an obstruction that prevented any food to pass by.
We also noticed that his heart was blown up like a balloon, and all intestines where on one side. Leo was born with a heart murmur ( hole in his heart ) therefore he was not a candidate for surgery of this magnitude, because we did not know what to expect. So we decided that we would take another set of x-rays to see if any barium went passed that point. The second x-ray showed no change......so we waited and prayed and hoped...cryed and payed some more.
It was now getting time for the doctors to go home...and we had a descision to make....because if we would leave Leo there he would have not been supervised...it was Saturday after all. After discussing it back and forth we decided to take the costly way....to bring Leo down to the pet emergency care center where he would have 24 hour care.
So I payed the $305.00 doctorbill for him and charged it on my credit card....and went to the emergency care center with Leo. There he was examined again...and oviously he was squeeling in pain when the doctor touched a certain point on his stomach. Leo was now prgressivly getting worth by the hour.......and around 4pm the doctor came in nad told me the unavoidable...that there is really nothing they could do and that Leo would most likely not survive the night.
After trying to call my husbands cellphone for several times he finally picked up and I told him everything we have been through, and that he should prepare the kids that Leo would not be comming home. So He came and we spend another hour just bbeing with our beloved Leo......and then the doctor cmae back in and ask us if we had made a descision about Leo and at 5:30pm I held him in my arm when he died.
I am crying now as I am writing this and reflect on whats happend. When he was dead...I did not know how much that would hurt in my heart, because I loved him so much. Not for once had that thought crossed my mind that he would have to die that day.
I wanted to share my feelings with all you animal lovers out there, who might have lost a beloved pet as well.
Lexi Butler
