Angel DreamGirl

Wow!! Oh Wow! I received an anonymous rosie with a picture attached saying that I was chosen as a "Angel DreamGirl!" I'm so honored to hold this special title, I don't know what to say other than THANK YOU guys for choosing me!

Letter from mommy

Kayleigh, I think of you not only today, on your first bridge anniversary, but everyday. You were and will always be my special girl.

I remember the year I moved away from home to make my own way. I had your brothers Brandon and Cole but my mom (you knew her as "granny") talked me into leaving them with her because she thought that I would be working all the time and not able to provide them the neccessary time that a pet requires. I knew she was wrong but I didn't argue with her and I sadly left my two boys with her.

I was so very lonely living in a new town with no family, friends or pets. I will never forget the day I found you. It was January 11, 1997......

I had just returned home from work and heard a kitty meowing in the bushes near my apartment building. I bent down and peeked under the shrubs to make sure the kitty I heard was not injured or sick. I was amazed at your beauty! I was certain that you belonged to someone so I left you alone and went to my apartment. All day the newscasts had talked about an approaching ice storm. That night I listened to the weather news before bed and I remembered you laying under the bushes that afternoon. I figured you had returned to your family by this time but on a whim, I grabbed a flashlight and ran down the stairs barefoot in shorts and a tshirt to make sure you weren't still there. It was FREEZING cold and beginning to sleet and I knelt down on the cold ground and shined the flashlight right on you!!! I couldn't believe you were still there!! I reached under the shrubs and gently pulled you out and gathered you into my arms and carried you upstairs and held you in my arms to warm you. You were so beautiful, sweet and gentle. We slept together that night, keeping each other warm while the power fickered on and off thru the night threatening to go off but it never did.

The next morning we woke up to solid ice everywhere. The town was at a stand still but I found a grocery store 1/2 a mile down the road that was open. I bundled up and carefully walked on solid ice, slipping and sliding the entire way so I could buy you a few neccessities (food, litter and litterbox). We spent the next three days continuing to keep each other warm. On the fourth day, the ice finally melted and I returned to work. I let you outside when I left, certain that you would return to your family.

When I returned home that afternoon, you heard the sound of my scooter drive up and I saw beautiful YOU run from around the building, up the stairs and wait for me to come up and open the door. You ran into my apartment as though you already owned the place :) That entire first week, you spent the nights with me and the days outside where I thought someone HAD to be missing you and that you would find your way home to them, but every afternoon was a replay of the one before and after that first week I knew that YOU had adopted ME.

It was that night that I decided you needed a name and I knew it had to be a name as beautiful as you. That night I thought up names and asked you to let me know which one you liked best. I would call out names but you didn't respond to any. Then while reading a book, one of the characters names was "Kayleigh" and I thought "that is a beautiful name." I looked at you and asked, "What do you think about the name 'Kayleigh'?" You looked up and walked toward me and said, "Meow." And it was settled.......you were now my beautiful girl Kayleigh :)

Today, on your first bridge anniversary, I thank you for coming into my life when I desperately needed a pet to fill the emtiness I felt in my heart and home. I will always cherish the 14 years we shared together. Until we meet again..... I will hold you gently in my heart.

Love,
Mommy

A Christmas surprise :-)

First off.... MEOWY CHRISTMAS to ALL of my friends and their families, earthly and Heavenly, and especially to mommy. She is spending the day alone cause daddy is working a double shift and she was listening to Christmas music, thinking about me (and my angel sibs) and getting sad when she suddenly discovered that I had been chosen as Catsters COTD (Thank you Catster for this wonderful and unexpected Christmas "gift" on my first Christmas at the bridge).

Silent Night always makes mommy sad now when she hears it because the day I went to sleep forever, the salon next door to the vet clinic which was adjacent to the room I was placed in, was playing Christmas music. When it came time for the doctor to give me the shot to make me sleep, the song SILENT NIGHT began playing and mommy could hear it thru the wall. She can't hear the song anymore without crying, no matter the location.... home, car, restaurant, store.

I've been at the bridge for just a little over a month. I'm still learning my way around but I have many friends here who are all teaching me lots of new things. My favorite thing to do at the moment is fly in and sprinkle angel dust on mommy at night while she sleeps :-) I was also reunited with my angel sibs Brandon, Cole and Conner. This is Conner's first year at the bridge also. It was an emotional year for my family as they had to send two of us to the bridge this year. Conner in March and me in November.

Well, I better go now. I just wanted to wish everyone a MEOWY CHRISTMAS and to say THANK YOU to Catster for picking me for COTD. I am honored to be Catsters "Christmas angel!"

Oh, before I go, I also want to Thank Buddie and his family for surprising us with a Plus gift. Now I can have this purrty pink background instead of the generic Catster one!! Thank you Buddie for also always being there for us during the good times and bad. You have offered mommy, Cole and me support and love on Earth and in Heaven. "Thank you" doesn't seem to be enough but I hope you know how much we appareciate you. I also want to thank Louis Lebeau and his family for the beautiful little Christmas tree they sent mommy for Christmas, complete with lights and tiny ornaments. It will be a constant reminder to mommy that even though I am no longer with her, my love will continue to grow just like the little tree will year after year, until we reunite at the bridge someday. Thanks also goes out to Calvin for making me these beautiful wings when I arrived at the bridge, so that I could fly in and visit mommy while she sleeps! And, Thank you to our friend Pedro for the giving us a gift of zealies so that we can give gifties to our friends.

Once again....wishing you all a Meowy Christmas and a Purrfect Mew Year.

With love....
Kayleigh

Today, I came home.....

Hello friends,

Some of you know and some of you don't..... I had to go to the Rainbow Bridge on Saturday, November 13.

In March, mommy found a lump on my flank and took me to the vet. The vet advised her to monitor it. It grew to the size of a baseball and I was throwing up all the time and stopped eating. Mommy decided at that time to have the tumor surgically removed in June. The lab results said that it was a malignant tumor and the vet said it would most likely return in 3 to 6 months because she wasn't able to remove it all because it had a lot of tendrils.

A couple of months after surgery, the tumor returned and rapidly grew to the size of a baseball again. Mommy took me to a new vet and he explained that this type of tumor would have had to be aggressively treated which would have meant the removal of my leg as well as tissue surrounding the tumor completely removed and skin grafts required to close the wound. This was in September and I had stopped eating again. The new vet at this time felt that I had only DAYS to live and he told mommy to feed me ANYTHING I would eat regardless of nutritional value.

So for the last 7 weeks, mommy hand fed me cat treats every three to four hours (as much as I would eat at each feeding) thru out the day from the time we woke up til the time we went to bed. At first I was also very weak so mommy would carry me to the liter box several times a day as well. After a couple of weeks, I regained my strength and was able to walk to the box myself and I refused to eat anything but cat treats and only if mommy hand fed them to me. Mommy also had to switch out my litter box from a tall sided, covered one, to a short sided open one because she noticed that it appeared painful for me to crawl in and out of the tall one. During these 7 weeks, I lost complete eyesight but quickly adapted to my new disability by using the wall for a guide and my whiskers to keep me from buming into things.

Last Friday, I refused to eat any of my cat treats and the same thing on Saturday morning. I also refused my catnip ball and mommy knew then that my quality of life had come to an end and it would be selfish on her part to force me to continue living, so she spent a lot of time with me all day Friday and Saturday morning before sending me to the bridge Saturday afternoon. She felt it was better to send me peacefully in her arms than to have me pass away alone while she was sleeping during the night.

Mommy had me cremated, just as she had my brothers Brandon, Cole & Conner. Today, I came home. The crematory sent me home in a nice little wooden box with a purrty design on top.

Mommy is going to order me a purrty urn this evening. She found a custom one that looks like a rock with a kitty laying on top of it and they would paint the kitty in my likeness from a photo she would send of me. Well....they haven't responded to mommy's question regarding the urn, so mommy thinks this is an indication of the type of service we will receive and she has decided on urn #2, which in my opinion is much better suited for a princess like me!!! It is a purrty white urn with an angel holding a kitty and an attach picture frame for my photo with a purrty poem at the bottom. Mommy is going to have a metal plate engraved with my name and dates that she will attach on the frame above my picture.

I want to thank my all of my earth and angel friends who have sent me rosies, pmails, etc.... Mommy and I appreciate your caring thoughts and friendship. They are a huge comfort to her at this difficult time. Love to all of you~

Love,
Kayleigh

PS..... please keep your rosies and gifts....but all comments, pmails and friend requests are welcomed :-)

Beginning of the end

Hello friends,

I haven't written a diary entry in such a long time, so I figure now is as a good time as any.

First off, I and my family are no longer "plus" members, so I would like to ask each of you to please not spend your rosies on us. Your friendship is of the utmost importance and THAT, my friends, is ALL we need :-)

In other news.... On March 29, my k9 brother, Conner, left us to go to the Rainbow Bridge. It happened quite sudden and unexpected. We all woke up one morning to find Conner breathing much heavier than normal. Mommy and daddy got him in to see the vet that morning. They kept him most of the day to run tests & xrays and found some fluid around his heart. He was sent home with an appointment to see a cardiologist the very next day, but when mommy and daddy returned home with him, he became unconscious and was experiencing very labored breathing so they rushed him back to the vet where they decided that the best thing was to say goodbye and send him to the bridge to be with my brothers Cole & Brandon. He was such a big tub of love and our house is still very empty without his presence.

Regarding me..... About a month ago, I went to the vet for my annual check up. I checked out fine. However, a couple of days later, mommy was petting me as I stood next to the computer and much to her horror, she felt an egg sized lump on my right flank. She immediately made an appointment for me to see the vet. We're not blaming the vet for missing the lump because us cats are usually in a lying crouch position for these types of check ups and my lump could only be felt when I was standing straight upright. Even mommy found it purely by accident, and SHE pets me all the time! The vet did a needle aspiration at that time and thought that she saw some 'cells' in the fluid. She first suggested that we should monitor it because IF it was cancerous, sometimes surgery causes them to rapidly spread if the entire tumor is not able to be removed. A couple weeks later, mommy noticed that there was now a vert hard marble sized bump on top of the lump. So, two weeks ago, I went into surgery to have the mammary tumor removed. Unfortunately, the vet was not able to remove the entire tumor. It was sent to a lab for a biopsy and the results came back this week. The news is not good. My tumor is/was a malignant fibrosarcoma. There are still at least two nodules that we can feel near the incision site. Due to my age (14-1/2 years old) mommy has decided not to put me thru chemo or radiation treatment. The vet estimates that the cancer will most likely grow within 3 to 6 months.

Mommy is trying to be strong and brave in front of me, but I catch her quite often swiping tears away from her eyes.

There is some GOOD news to share though. Before the surgery, I would throw up all time after eating and for three weeks before the surgery, I had stopped eating and lost two pounds. Mommy had to give me an appetite stimulant just to get me to eat a tiny bit. So the good news is that since the surgery, I am eating 1/2 to 3/4 cup of food in a 24 hour period (with no appetite stimulant) and best of all, I have stopped throwing up every day!

That is all the news to share at this time. I just wanted to let all of you know what is going on. And PLEASE..... SAVE THOSE ROSIES! P-mails will be welcome and I will try to answer each one as time allows. Perhaps before I start getting too sick with the cancer, we will have a "Kayleigh Finaleigh" pawty. Get it??? Finale but spelled like my name! ;-) And EVERYONE will be invited!

I love each and everyone of you and I wouldn't be able to get thru this without your friendship and support.

Love to each of you......
Kayleigh

The World From A Cats Point of View

Act nonchalant
Be comfortable
Control yourself
Discriminate
Explore
Fake what you don't know
Grab at passing opportunities
Have moments of wild abandon
Ignore the ignorant
Jog in your sleep
Knead people
Let it all hang out
Make friends with your neighbors
Nap often
Overstep boundaries
Play with and enjoy your food
Quit while you're winning
Return to your favorite places
See things others don't
Take your time
Understand human limitations
View things from more than one perspective
Wait at least 60 weconds before responding to being called
X-pect only the best
Yawn and stretch at regular intervals
Zzzzzzz in the sunshine

In closing ... have a great time doing
whatever it is that makes you a happy CAT!

Anonymous Rosette :-)

Hey!! Cool~! I got an anonymous rosette!! Thank you whoever left it for me! I wish I knew who you were!! :-)

Thank U Meowy much!

I wanted to send a great big THANK YOU to our friends Autumn, Violet, Samoa, Calvin! for the wonderful gifts they sent us today!! We love the gifts and we appreciate your thoughtfulness very much.

BAD Hair Day....literally!

Well mommy really went and done it now. I had a couple of small knots on my butt and on my belly, and I won't let mommy brush them out. So she decided that maybe I could use a haircut. So she pulled her grooming tools out. Mommy used to be a groomer about 7 years ago, but I think she forgot that she was never any good at grooming cats, only dogs.

HOLY MEOW!!! My beautiful long hair is gone!!! And because I wouldn't let her finish, I'm left with patches of long tufts everywhere. You all know the cute poster of the kitten in the bathtub and it says "bad hair day" below???
That's NOTHING compared to what mommy did to me yesterday!!!

I think I'll go back and hide behind the couch until my hair grows back. Happy 4th everyone!

Happy Birthday 2 Me!

Today is my birthday and mommy 'meowed' "Happy Birthday" to me. She was kinda off key, but I guess it's the thought behind it, right? Mommy says I'm nine years old today.....does that mean my nine lives are up? I sure hope not!