2012-05-10 Sick BB, Gi in yard, Benny & Caitlin visit, Bart's blood, and her options

5/10/2012 - BB was Fatty's own cat, and as stated in previous posts, I have met him only a few times before he passed away in 5/2003.  9 years ago today (5/3/2003), he was already quite sick, according to Fatty.  Fatty spent quite a bit of time with BB in his last days.  Although I did not live with BB, but I felt sorry for him as well.  I feel the same for any other animal (or humans) I know of that is sick, or about to pass away due to illness...

On the same day in 2003, Gi was allowed to walk in the yard.  If I remember correctly, Chung and Gi were the only cats allowed to walk in the yard.  She seemed having fun in the yard by sniffing around.

4 years ago today (5/10/2008), I remember Fatty's mom, Benny and Caitlin came to visit us.  Benny was happy to see us, but Caitlin was a bit scare of us.

MaGi was saying hello to Caitlin and welcoming her to visit us.

In my opinion, I have always been a good cat when it comes to welcoming visitors, although Ball, Fatty and other cats might disagree with me.  Though this photo is a strong evidence on how I welcome visitors.

3 years ago today (5/10/2009), Bart continued to bleed throughout the house.  Her blood dripped on the window table where we watched birds,

or near the litter box.

After Bart lost quite a bit of blood from bleeding, she would sleep on the sofa and rest.  All of us, including Fatty, Ball, MaGi, Mui, Lik, and I worried so much about her well being, but worst thing is that we were virtually helpless.

According to Ball and Fatty, an oncologist at Angell-Memorial MSPCA gave them and Bart 3 options back in 9/2008.  First option was to do nothing and let the fibrosarcoma grow itself out.  The oncologist said let it grow until it affects Bart so much internally and externally.  By then, it would be time to make the hard decision.  Second option was to amputate Bart's rear right leg, cut out most of her flesh in the area to prevent reoccurence.  Then she has go through 19 consecutive days of chemotherapy.  The only facility that could perform this type of chemotherapy is about an hour away from our house.  Reoccurence rate of this option is about 30% to 50% in 6 to 12 months.  The cost was about $3,000 for amputation, $7,000 to $9,000 for chemotherapy.  Third option was to amputate Bart's rear right leg and stop short there without any chemotherapy.  The cost was about $3,000, but reoccurrence rate is 50% to 70% within 6 to 12 months.  Ball and Fatty had many nights of discussion along with some fierce crying.  They discussed this topic among themselves as well as asking all of us to assess Bart's quality of life, reoccurence rate, desire, and cost (cost is the least decision-making factor in their mind.)  At last, being our step-parents, they chose option one because reoccurence rate is just too high as cost, and their own quality of life were not as important as Bart's well being physically and emotionally.