Clio died peacefully on the morning of Nov. 27th after a brief struggle with an aggressive bone marrow cancer. I was with her, as was her wonderful cat sitter, who has always been "aunt Marie" to her.
Her vet, Dr. Beth Hagenlocker of the Cat Practice, spent hours of mostly uncompensated time during Clio's final weeks, reviewing test results, consulting with experts and looking for treatment possibilities, often calling me long after office hours to let me know what she had found. Marie was always there, either in person or sometimes just watching her on one of the webcams I set up and calling to let me know what was going on when I couldn't be watching. She had online fans from Tokyo to New York for those final days and weeks.
I adopted Clio from the Los Angeles East Valley shelter in June of 2003. She had been with me for just about seven and a half years and was probably between nine and ten years old.
I suspect I'll have more to say about this as I can slowly collect my thoughts and commit them to "paper." In the meantime, this is the last photoset I have of her, taken mostly in the day or two after she came home from intensive care. She spent much of her final days enjoying the sun and partaking of her "medicinal catnip." (Here in Venice Beach, it's legal for cancer patients, of course.)
-mg
