So, last Friday I got a call from our vet. They had sent Bela's Lump of Doom in to get tested and the pathology results came back: fibrosarcoma.
We are sad.
Schmoobs hasn't shed a tear, but I know that when I told him the news, he was devastated. It was Scott and Bela before it was Scott, Ys and Bela - and surely before Scott, Ys, Bela and BB. When I think about how much I love Bela (even though he has moments of psychosis where his eyeballs get all dilated and then he tries to eat my toes!), I think about how much he
really must mean to Scott and I get doubly sad for him.
All the literature I've read online about this type of feline cancer conveys that it is basically a death sentence - the only recourses to take being surgery after surgery and radiation treatments. Just after this one surgery to remove the initial tumor, we both know that we would never want to put our President of the Finer Things Club through that kind of trauma again and again just so that we can buy a couple more months with him at a time. He'd be in recovery and dealing with pain meds and being drugged out all the time. That's no life for our Bela.
Our focus is just on making sure Bela lives the happiest and most normal of kitty lives for as long as we can give him.
But after crying and being very sad for 24 hours, I sat myself down at the computer and read Google page after Google page of trying to find some alternatives - any alternative - to help Bela. And somewhere in about the tenth layer of Google results pages, I started finding forums and mention of flax seed oil as a supplement that might have possible anti-cancer properties. Specifically, flax seed oil mixed with low-fat cottage cheese for pets. Some stuff I've read include
this,
this, and
this.
I know there are a lot of people out there who view this kind of holistic mumbo jumbo as hippie nonsense, but I am embracing it full on. We have nothing to lose. Plus, I drink an organic apple cider vinegar and water tonic mixture every day, take daily papaya enzyme tablets, slug green sludge from a bottle and eat quinoa on a regular basis, so you know I am totally into this hippie wizardry. I've also started to transition him off of his normal grocery store cat food and onto a more specialized low-wheat, low-sugar diet. I've also read material talking about the advent of processed pet foods in the 1950s and how it has contributed to an increase in pet diseases. It makes sense, if you think about it. Before then, families generally fed their household pets scraps from the table and plain cooked meat. Now, our pets commonly eat food mixed with high amounts of fillers, grain and sugars. So Schmoobs has been totally on board with paying for some special food for Bela that is grain free and rich in natural proteins.
I have been having the darnedest time getting Bela to take his flax seed oil, even when I mix it in with his special delicious new wet food, so I have resorted to just making him take his daily dose by using the little plastic syringe from the vet when we were giving him his pain meds. The process is that I give him his beloved wet food breakfast treat in order to make him happy and off guard. Then I have to hold him down while I stick the syringe of flax seed oil through his bared fangs. And then I give him more special wet food deliciousness right after so that I may buy back his love and affection. It's a new routine, and one that I embrace.
Anyway, here is to hoping, wishing and praying that this helps Bela have a longer and healthier remainder of his life than he would otherwise. We are not ready to let him go quite so soon.
***
In other news, do you know what kinds of things Ysabel would buy at the grocery store after an especially long, never-ending and school-filled day during which she consumes nothing but 3 cups of black coffee, half a banana and half a rice krispie treat until 7pm?
and the piece de resistance:
Don't try to make sense of it. There is no sense to be made. Although, it makes you understand more clearly why it is so important that I take those hippie wizard organic vinegar tonic supplements.
Also, did you know that Kentucky closes its schools during election day? Including the school currently affiliated with both me and Schmoobles? Huzzah! Kentucky also makes it illegal to serve alcohol anywhere on election day until the polls close at 6. Kentucky, you so crazy! Anyway, since today is a blissfully rare day off for both of us, we woke up and voted at the elementary school that is literally around the corner from our place (easiest walk to the voting booths ever!) where there were only two people in line in front of me (easiest walk to the voting booth ever!), then we gathered BB and took a walk down the road to the Dunkin' Donuts where we got pumpkin coffees, donuts and some breakfast sandwiches, and then Schmoobliedoos gave BB a bath that she SORELY NEEDED. Oof, that thing was stanky. And it's not even noon yet! Later, we plan on driving through some neighborhoods to look at some real estate and then it's off to Target to get some Christmas decorations. I love days off!
"She farted as soon as you closed the bathroom door!" Hahahaha. Nice job BB. That's what Schmoobles gets for hot-boxing me in the car last night!
So fresh and so clean clean!
Sometimes, Bela is just such a...cat.
My furry loves.
