Samantha...sweet girl

September 1993 -April 15, 2008



This is my sweet Samantha who left this world for a better place last week. She was a beautiful cat with a sweet disposition. All I had to do was look at her and she'd start purring! She loved to play with her basket of toys and often dropped them at my feet to join in her fun and was a big fan my yarn and knitting. She never met a yarn ball, she didn't like. I thought I'd have her for a lot longer, but it wasn't meant to be.

Samantha was a charmer right from the start! I had offered to pick up the "twins" for my mother who wanted 2 cats to keep each others company when she was at work. They were 2 siblings that looked alike expect for the size of a white stripe that went from the top of their heads to their noses. Otherwise, you couldn't tell them apart. My friend Sandy, kept the kittens in the recreation/playroom, so they wouldn't get into to much mischief in the rest of the house. She told me she had one more kitten left and that one was going to the pet shop, because there were no offers to take her. I thought about it ,but wasn't really planning to get a cat at that time.

All of the sudden we heard pool balls rolling and out of one the pockets popped up a kitten, who then scurried across the table doing 100 mph! When I saw that beautiful and spirited cat, there was no way in hell she was going to any pet store! She rode to her new home that night tucked in my sweater with her head poking out every once-in-while and purring like a machine. She's been one of my best decisions in life!

She had recently developed a slight limp that resulted in a Vet visit. At the time it was thought to be an ingrown toe nail. it was clipped and she seemed fine. For a few days she seemed like her old self, but I thought her weight had changed slightly, the nail seemed to be sticking further out than the other nails and she was limping again. At the follow-up visit, Dr Wolfthal felt a small bump behind the nail. It was one of two things " An infection or tumor. He treated it as an infection and if it wasn't perfectly normal in a week, He'd x-ray it and remove the tumor. Everything went down hill quickly. The tumor grew rapidly and the foot a just didn't look right. We scheduled her to have the toe removed in the event it was malignant. She continued to decline and X-rays the day of her surgery showed a malignant and fast invading tumor. It had gone to her bones and lungs. The only thing that could be done was feline hospice or euthanasia. Dr. Wolfthal recommended euthanasia because although she never was a cat who showed any sign of pain, she had to be in great pain. I took her home that day so I could have one more day with her and brought her back the next day to be "put to sleep" . It's one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make and I didn't want to be selfish and hold on to her for my sake. She just wasn't the same and looked as though she wanted it to be over. All she wanted to do was to be held on my lap and sleep. I was there with her and held her to the end. My sweet little Samantha, you always be in my thoughts and in my heart. I miss you more than you'll ever. know.

Hibernating,knitting and a sick cat.

can't believe how long it's been since I last posted. At the beginning of the year, I had joined blog 365 and then decided that blogging 7 days a week would be more of a challenge than I thought. I ended up going from posting 7 days a week to zip, Nada, zilch, zero! I haven't dropped out of knitting though. I joined a few KALS and have been knitting scarves and socks. The KALS have all been lace related. So, I have projects to keep me busy! I'll have some picture to show soon. I broke my camera back in January. It still works for the most part, but when I try to adjust or use the zoom lens, it goes out back-and-forth in and out of focus. Ain't that a bitch... My camera needs glasses!

2007 was a mixture of good and hideous! My last few years have been like that and I was hoping to get a break in 2008. I'm probably no better or worse than off anyone else, but it would be nice to have a year that goes smoothly for a change. For fun I went to a psychic party in November of 2007. I'm always a little surprised when someone tells me things about myself or my life, especially when I don't volunteer any info that can help them with the predictions. This psychic new I had surgery and told me to expect another one but minor nothing to worry about! She also told me that 2008 would be a great year because so many good changes would be happening. These included a new house, going to a wedding and having a wedding. Now all I have to do is meet prince charming, fall in love, get engaged, plan a wedding and get married. This woman also told me I would write that book I'd been planning (it's true, but I never shared that with ANYONE until now!) but not until a few years from now. I was also told that as much as I disliked by job and as "itchy" as I was to escape from it, I needed to stay-put. I am still there, but looking... It was also interesting that she brought up my dancing and skating. She told me I was artistic and that I wasn't finished dancing. Peta (the psychic) insisted I would be dancing again. I had to laugh out loud and tell her: "My dancing days are over!" except maybe for some dancing at parties. I was told the above prince charming would be well off (slackers need not apply!) and finished off the reading by chuckling and saying: "hmm, I see you getting a new computer".

Should I have asked for a money-back guarantee? Do you think I can get my money back or do I have to wait until the end of 2008 to see how much came true? I'll tell you readers right now, this year is not shaping up to be a winner as predicted!

One of the most important reasons I haven't been blogging is my cat, Samantha. My beautiful purring machine has not been herself for a while and I've been spending time taking care of her and giving extra kitty love. About a month ago, I noticed her holding her paw up when she was sitting down and easing herself off of furniture instead of her usual leap. I inspected the foot, but didn't see anything wrong with it. I called her vet and a few days later we were at the office to check it out. It seemed she has one of her nails in-grown into the pad. Her nails were clipped. The small nail in the pad was removed and she was placed on antibiotics as a precaution. The other problem was her weight loss. I bring her in for blood work every 3 months due to hyperthyroidism. She takes medicine daily and did well. I did notice a small change in her weight and the vet confirmed it, but decided not to change her medicine because all of her blood work came back normal. He felt she might stressed by the foot problem and cats will lose a little weight when sick or injured. She took her medicine without too much trouble and I thought things were going well, until I looked at foot one morning and noticed it seemed swollen. I mentally made a note to call the vet from work. As I was leaving for work that day, I returned to my bedroom to retrieve my forgotten glasses and give Samantha a pat on the head. My brain couldn't quite wrap-around what I was seeing ...blood. there was 4 streams of blood rolling down my bed quilt to the floor! I picked her and saw it was coming from her nail . Right then, we were back at the Vets. He put her on more antibiotics, inspected the wound (she must bit the nail while grooming and that started the bleeding). He felt a hard lump at the base of the nail and came up with 2 possible diagnoses. A bacterial infection from the in-grown nail or a tumor(that caused the nail to curve into her foot pad. He went with the bacterial infection because after Samantha opened it by biting at the nail, it stunk. So, she was put on antibiotics and I had to soak the foot twice a day. He said if the foot wasn't completely normal when I returned in two weeks, we'd have to consider there is a tumor behind the infected part of the foot.

We returned to the Vets office on Thursday and he was not pleased. The infection is gone and the wound is closed up. However, the hard lump is still there. The Vet felt if it had been just an infection, the lump should be completely gone. She has also continued to lose weight despite eating (she is eating less). The next step is a chest X-ray and an X-ray of her foot. If she has a cancer it will show up in her lungs first. If the Chest x-ray is negative, he'll operate and remove the affected toe.

She's fifteen years old and other than hyperthyroidism is in excellent shape. I'm hoping for the best, but every time I look at her I feel very sad. In the last month, she's lost a lot of weight for a cat (3lbs). Since the infection has cleared up, she's been more like her old self. I'll know for sure on the 14th whether she'll be able to have the surgery.

I'm out of hibernation and plan to post more regularly. Until the next post, happy knitting. It's a great stress reliever, for sure!!!