The best way to make poo dissappear?

Now that Sam is back I think she deserves a treat so I am seriously considering purchasing a Littermaid LM950 ... for those of you not owning cats .. it is a mythical fully-automated contraption which rakes through the litter, picks up your cats deposits and scoops them into a container which can be thrown away at a later stage. Now I have found a supplier in the UK who will deliver to my door and I discover it is huge! Double the size of our current manually operated littertray.

Have heard varying opinions on how great or useless it is. If there is anyone out there with one of these I'd be grateful on your views on how worthwhile or worthless a purchase it is ... before adding it to my birthday wishlist!

Sammy's back in town

Sam is back .. back in London ... back to her favourite armchair ... back to her usual purring self.

She looks great and is eating well. She is still on antibiotics, a follow-up with our Vet in a week and then a follow-up with the Specialist in a month.

The only difference I have noticed is her newly acquired taste for pilchards and expensive cat food!

Pilchards for breakfast.

We have spent a couple of sleepless nights without Sam ... but the Specialist is really pleased with her progress ... surgery went well ... she didn't eat the night of the surgery ... but promptly demolished two tins of cat food the day after. Although part of her jaw is gone ... her persuasive manner with humans is still intact. We hear Sam managed to convince the nurse to treat her to pilchards. I'm sure that was not on the approved menu!

They tell us we may have her home by Sunday! Can't wait to have her back home! Though given the splendid treatment she is getting at the five star clinic, she may not want to return!

Sam visits Six Mile Bottom

After much consideration we took Sam the distance to the Specialist in Six Mile Bottom ... yes there is such a place! Given our Vets diagnosis we were really just going for confirmation of what we feared we already knew.

The Specialist checked her x-rays, medical history and prised open her mouth and said "We can do this" ... Cream and I were in shock! The Specialist seemed so positive. "If she was my cat" he said "I'd do it".

The dilemma we had was with the origin of the carcinoma. If it was in the soft tissue then Sam had little chance of surviving even if surgery was undertaken. If it was in the bone then she had a good chance of another 12 months granted without part of her jaw, but more importantly without any pain! The Specialist promised us that he would be able to ascertain the origin pretty soon after "opening her up" and he assured us if it were in the soft tissue he would not undertake any unnecessary surgery or decrease her quality of life and would simply return her to us.

She will be on the slab tomorrow ... we hope and pray all goes well.

Complete check-up

Cream very wisely took out insurance on the cats some time ago ... and I am so thankful for it. I don't know how I could have coped if the decisions we have to make were blurred by financial implications ... Sam has had every organ and orifice checked. Still waiting for blood test results to return but she is perfectly fit besides the FSCC in her jaw. The Vet has suggested that we refer Sam to a specialist in Cambridge to exhaust any possibility of treatment or surgery before we start thinking longer term and explore pain relief.

At the moment the "drool" is causing her some irritation and the loss of her sharp claws has resulted in a slip or two. Otherwise Sam is still enjoying her "she who can have everything" status though she has tired a little of the constant attention .. preferring to curl up asleep on Cream's new fleece jacket. At least this means I can now re-wash my clean clothes!

Syria Sam withdraws her troops

Bush style democracy has been brought to the household. The Vet has already unilaterally decided to clip Sam of her dangerous weaponry but Sam's grip on the bedroom for the last two days was verging on a military coup ... with her food and bed within 100 cms of each other she has only ventured out for a visit to the bathroom.

So in a bid to get her out of her lethargic state I have proclaimed that she withdraw from the bedroom and her dinner plates be returned to their proper territorial positions out in the kitchen. Sam has responded very well to this and was certainly more active today and spent some time with Cream explaining her exact dietary requirements for the day.

As she has been such a good girl all day I did succumb to her demands and allowed her a midnight feast in the bedroom. The wheels of democracy need a bit of oiling on occasion!

Feline Squamous Cell Carcinoma

I have learnt more in the last few days about FSCC than I would like to know. Vet has confirmed our worst fears .. Sam has a type of bone cancer in her lower right jaw. The normal treatment is to remove the affected bone and blast what is left with radiotherapy or chemotherapy. We will be referred to a specialist who can give us a more accurate idea of what treatment is available and what the likely outcome will be.

Realistically the outlook is bleak. I have read some online diaries where people have lovingly cared for their pets to the end. Upsetting but reassuring nonetheless. We are not alone in the difficult decisions which we may have to make. Ultimately the question we must bear in mind is "what is best for Sam".

Does time fly???

Time really flies when you're having fun. Parents are celebrating their Ruby Wedding Anniversary today by cooking up a feast for the family ... its amazing to think that they have married for 40 years!! Dug out their wedding video for Cream who was astounded at seeing a very young version of Mum and Dad peering back through the TV screen.

Time seems to stand still whilst waiting for further test results for Sam. First smear came back "suspicious". In the meantime Sam is enjoying her newly acquired status as "she who can have anything she wants".

Toothache or Tumour?

Poor old Sam isn't feeling well ... we found a hard lump on her jaw line and so took her to the Vets on Friday ... she went under the knife on Monday and they pulled a tooth and took a biopsy .. so we are awaiting the results. Could be an infected tooth ... or something worse.

The Vet said that Sam wouldn't be hungry on Monday night after the operation and that she was to be given whatever she wanted to eat on Tuesday. Within two minutes of arriving home, Sam tottered over to the dinner bowls and demanded to be given two pouches of Whiskas!! Since then she has only ventured out of her beloved cardboard box, where she has made a nest on a pile of my freshly washed clothes, if her attendants fail to notice her hunger.

She is a feisty little vixen and doing amazingly well. Hope to have some results back by Thursday.