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Best Friends Animal Society
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Calie
Courage is not usually a quality attributed to animals, but if it were, I think our cat, Calie, was very courageous. We adopted Calie and her brother, Hunter, from a no-kill shelter in the summer of 1996. They were six weeks old and both little balls of "chick" fur. Hunter weighed in at two and a half pounds and Calie at one and a half pounds. We enjoyed watching them grow and play with our two other cats.
In the summer of 2002, when they were six, Calie began to have digestive problems. The vet diagnosed this as irritable bowel and we changed food. When this did not work, the vet did an exploratory and found Calie had lymphosarcoma of the lower stomach and upper small intestine. She felt Calie was a good candidate for chemo and thus we began an almost four year amazing journey into the treatment of feline cancer.
For the first year the chemo was given every week on a five week rotating protocol for six months. Then we went to every other week. At the end of the year, Calle had an ultra sound and was cancer free. She remained that way for a year. In the summer of 2004, the cancer was back and we began again. At the end of another year, summer 2005, the cancer was smaller but still present. At this time we consulted a veterinary oncologist and tried a new treatment with less than promising results.
By December 2005, the ultrasound showed lessening of the tumor but possible metastasis to a lymph gland. We tried another medication suggested by a different oncologist. Calie rallied but then went into a slump and died this past April. She was so brave during all her treatments and very seldom did she fight having the IV. By the time we would get back home, she seemed to have forgotten what she had just been through.
When people ask why spend all this money on just a cat or would you do it again, I would say a resounding "yes." Calie's life was greatly prolonged by our intervention and was of good quality until the end. Four years is an amazingly long time for a cat to survive cancer. Perhaps we have provided some insight for treating other cats.
Calie gave us a lot of happiness and joy and we owed her the chance.
Jan Crick, Cherry Hill, N.J.
