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  I have written a bit about the process of pets dying before, along with the ways in which vets can be (or not) helpful. In that post, I shared a book by Barbara Karnes on understanding the pet-dying process, which I had found very helpful and which would have provided me with a fair amount of relief and guidance had I known about while Murjan was still alive. It explained much about his dying process and death that was comforting in retrospect. You can read that post HERE . In this post, I want to share the emotional aspects not only of the dying itself but also of the role of the support community (which should be supportive but in our case was not so, at least not to the extent that we needed and that could have been). As a result, my experience with Murjan's dying days were traumatic--more traumatic than they should have been because of lack of support from the veterinary hospital that should have been my source of support.  As I explained in the earlier post, Murjan had been

  When my beloved Murjan was dying from cancer , I was desperate for information, but my husband was dying from cancer at the same time, which gave me very little time for seeking out answers. Murjan was almost 19 years old and had been on chemotherapy for three years. His vet did not know how to help him further, but she apparently did not want to admit that -- and subconsciously I did not want to admit that she did not know what to do and had essentially given up on him. I was unable to get timely appointments, or any appointments at all, even in the emergency room. We do not have any vets in town. I have to travel no matter what. Murjan's vet was located an hour north of us. To get help, I contacted other vets. A vet to the west of us recommended hydration, and so we stated hydrating Murjan every other day. His vet to the north allowed as to how that might help. But Murjan kept losing weight. He was down to 5 pounds (from 16 pounds) when he died.  Finally, a vet to the south of

  Carl and Murjan sharing a Thanksgiving dinner Gaudete Sunday is coming up--an oasis in Lent, and, like other Sundays, a time we can eat a full meal! If our beloved Murjan were still with us, he would be perching on his chair next to Carl (wish he, too, were still with us, 2021 stole two beloved members of our family), savoring the smells of the fat of the land (well, maybe, of pancakes -- he at those, too), and patiently (yes, he was a patient cat, almost humanly patient) for his share of the feast to be chopped up and presented for his enjoyment. Each of our cats had quite different personalities, but the two that stand in stark contrast to each other are Murjan and Intrepid . They were both born in Jordan, lived with us there, and came to California with us 15 years ago. Both are now on the other side of the rainbow bridge, ravaged by the same kind of cancer, feline lymphoma. Intrepid is interred with his devoted human to whom he was equally devoted, Carl, and Murjan's ashes

The cats in the window, Intrepid (tabby-mau mix) and Murjan (red & white Turkish van), were the best of friends. Murjan "raised" Intrepid after he was found as a small kitten crying in the grass after his mother died. Both were born in Jordan and were brought to the USA when we moved back home to California. Both were diagnosed at the same time with lymphoma though the vet said that it was pure coincidence. Intrepid was the younger by four years, but he had the worst case: his kidneys and liver were already damaged when we found out he was sick. Both began chemotherapy in summer of 2018.  Intrepid In October 2018, Intrepid , named for his daredevil approach to life, died. He was only 11 years old. As the days went by and the chemo did little more than make him loopy--actually, it was difficult to know whether the progressing disease was causing him to walk drunkenly or the chemotherapy side effect or both--he ended up on IV at home at times and IV in the pet hospital at t

  Murjan went over the rainbow bridge tonight after a valiant three years of fighting lymphoma and with such indomitable spirit that even on Sunday, after his hydration, he jumped down from the chair he was on, certain that he still had the springing power that he has always had. But he fell and landed on his side. Clearly, he hours were numbered.  His last days and hours were so typical of cancer patients. (Check the MSI Press website in a few weeks; there are plans for a cancer resource page for people and animals -- those questions that one can never find an answer to in spite of how much time you spend on Google; the tentative page name is Carlr's Cancer Compendium. And check out the book on cancer by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission ) First, the chemotherapy stopped working. Then Murjan lost interest in food, then in drink -- and then his spirit left his body. Just like his owner, MSI Press graphic designer, Carl Leaver, a month earlier. Murjan was born in Jordan and moved to S

  Last Sunday, 3-20-2020, would have been the 52d anniversary for Carl and me had he not died in August. I make this post here and not Cancer Diary, although Carl died from Cancer, because Carl was an important member of the MSI Press staff from its inception in 2003 until the month before he died. He was still working on typesetting tasks on July 23, 2021 when he fell and was admitted to Stanford, then sent home on a very short 10-day hospice.  I am also including it here, on Caturday, because our cats were a very important part of Carl's life. Particularly Intrepid, who lived up to his name yet snuggled with Carl every night and, like Carl, died of cancer three years ago, resulting in a book named after him, and Murjan, shown here, who never know whether he was dog or human but certainly did not consider himself a cat, could be found at Carl's elbow every day, especially at mealtimes. He was a very polite cat and would wait his turn for food, and one could have a fairly long

  This is a series of Caturday posts on the topic of taking in feral cats .  General information (from pervious posts): For a few decades, we have rescued feral cats. In fact, with only one exception, our "domestic" cats have been ferals that we brought inside to join other ferals, already domesticated, as part of a bonded cat family. Right now, we have five cats (alas,  Murjan , the single non-feral cat we had, died from cancer last fall), all of whom get along pretty fabulously. Of course, all of that is easier said than done, and the bonding took time -- lots of it. Here are some of the things we did to create our cat family, some of which is not at all typical of what others have done, but it has worked for us. We don't trap the feral cats at all; we win them over and invite them in. We do this by feeding them a distance from the house and walking away, then moving the dish closer and closer to the house and walking less and less far away, until they are eating at ou

  In my family, we rescue feral cats, integrate them into our human and cat family, and keep them indoors for their own safety.  Some of them get fat. We call it the feral rescue syndrome. Having to forage for food and not always finding it outdoors, they do not believe that food will always be there for them and overeat, especially if free feeding is allowed. Fat cats have a problem: they get diabetes; they get cancer; they have trouble walking and breathing; they could die younger than necessary. Our beloved Murjan, who crossed the rainbow bridge at the age of 19 -- not bad for a fat cat with diabetes and cancer (chemo for 3 1/2 years) -- actually became non-diabetic as he lost weight from attention to his diet. Unfortunately, while he put up a good fight, the lymphoma ultimately won out. (Cancer is something even humans cannot win with, in many cases.) With the vet's guidance, we put him on a weight-management cat food, DM. It comes in dry and set variants, and he got both. In f

  This is not the first time we have written about cat cancer in a Caturday post. We learn more about it over time, and it seems that more in general is learned about it over time.  Blind Cat rescued share the following interesting and information post about cat cancer:  Feline Carcinoma (blindcatrescue.blogspot.com) . Cat cancer not only occurs, but at least in our household has become common as our cats have aged. Among our cats, three have died of it, and two are living with it. The breed does not seem to matter; it appears that cancer is blind to breed. Intrepid was the first to be diagnosed with cancer and the first to die with it. In his cancer, it was small cell lymphoma. He lived only a few months after diagnosis. His vet missed the cancer -- that happens with people, too. After describing Intrepid's late night howling to a friend who works at the SPCA, he gave us the name of a vet with excellent diagnostic skills. She immediately intuited the problem, scoped Intrepid, fou

  Last Caturday, I made the comment on a post by Animal Friends Shelter in Gaza, Palestine, on X/Twitter that one of their cats looked like my late Murjan , shown above, hugging me (he was a hugger and a communicator). In response, the staff sent me a note and a video (such a nice surprise): Animal Friends Shelter on X: "@msi_press I qm so sorry for Murjan, he is in a better place now and will never forget your love. Today we made this video special for you and for Murjan hoping you like it 😻 https://t.co/4oZTNkI0ig" / X (twitter.com) They did this out of kindness and did not ask for a donation; later, I learned that they do not have enough food for all their cats and have to spread it out. If anyone feels like donating, here is where you can do it: PayPal Acc : Donate.AFScats@gmail.com or https:// paypal.me/DonateAFS?coun try.x=IL&locale.x=en_U And if you can, do not forget other shelters that are also hurting for funds to support their animals. For more Caturday posts

  Our white cat Murjan (pictured here) had a very thick fur, but one day a bald spot showed up. and then it grew larger. The vet scratched his head and gave us some salve. But the spot grew even larger. Now, we could see it right off, without even having to look for it through his fur, and the fur around the bald spot pulled out easily making the bald spot even bigger.  We took Murjan to a specialist. The specialist scratched her head and then gave us flea medicine for all the cats. By then, Murjan was not the only balding cat. Two others among the six started showing the same signs. So, the specialist asked us to bring in one of the other cats, too. She was able to pull a larger patch of hair from that cat to analyze -- and sent both samples to a lab. It turned out to be scabies. No one had considered that because these were indoor cats. However, a neighbor's cat had come into the house and spent some time with our cats. That cat was an outdoors cat, and the neighbor did not pay a

  We had a cat, Murjan, who seemed to be going blind. He seemed to walk into objects upon occasion that did not have anything to do with motor control. He would look intently at people talking to him. Yes, he was social, but it also seemed like he was trying to make them out. And it was different from cat staring , which is generally a sign of affection. So, I was a bit concerned. Unlike with people, the doctor could not tell if Murjan could see. The physical structure of the eye looked okay, but other than that, there is no visual acuity test for cats -- yet. So, we never did find out. So, recently, when I came across this very interesting and in-depth article about cat vision, it seemed appropriate to share for Caturday since I doubt that I am the only one asking if my cat can see and how well. Here is the article: What Colors Can Cats See? (Note: the article talks about more than just color -- worth reading.) For more Caturday posts, click  HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC news