Ode to Sugar

Not the edible kind...our family cat.

I did not grow up with cats. I pretty much had a dislike/fear/apathy for them. My feelings started to change after I met the Big Man because his mom had 2. But I never had any interest in owning one, just visiting hers occasionally.

Then MK started asking for a pet. We were going to get her a dog...as soon as we moved to a house with a fenced in yard. So we moved to this house when she was six and had intentions of getting a dog. Then one day the Big Man learned from a girl at work that she had a cat and needed to find a good home for it. I was skeptical, but it seemed like a great answer to the pet question...free, 5 years old and, did I mention, free? Sugar would not have been our first choice of a name, but since she was 5, we kept the name, because as Miss Kristy said, "She's so sweet." Corny, yes, but so true.

We had it all planned. On the last day of MK's first grade year, Miss Kristy showed up at our door. We had told MK that a friend was coming over and she was completely shocked when that friend showed up with a cat...more shocked when she learned the cat was staying. She entered our home with trepidation but quickly became a part of the family. For the first few days whenever we looked for her, we would just see a tail hanging over the top kitchen cabinets. She stopped doing that and, apart from massive shedding and the occasional hairball, she has been the ideal pet. She was here before T. Willy and never showed any aggression toward him and let him torture her just a little. She has slept with MK many nights and endured a long weekend locked in our bedroom with no food, water or litter box and did not destroy one thing, except some cheap bath mats.

Recently she developed a lesion on her nose. We took her to the vet and treated her. At first it seemed to be getting better, but never completely healed and now has gotten so much worse. Today we took her to the vet and the vet gently predicted that, worst case, it's "squamous cell carcinoma." So, since that is still conjecture, she stayed the night at the vet and will have a biopsy in the morning. There's a chance that it's a deep infection that may respond to steroids, and that is, of course, what we're hoping. However, if it's the worst, it's treatable for BIG BUCKS, and we just can't go there. When her quality of life deteriorates...well, you know.

So this one goes out to Sugar, the cat I never thought I'd care about this much. The house is a bit emptier tonight.