Today, after a very happy week with Chula I had to bury my baby.
Two Sundays ago, Chula threw herself off the roof of our building (4 stories) for who knows what reason - maybe wanted a juicy looking cat down there? My neighbor heard right away and called me, and I arrived within 15 minutes. I sat with her laying on my lap and pet her and cried while everyone else called everyone they knew in search for a vet with emergency services that would actually answer the phone.
Luckily we made it to the vet in time before she held to death. Her spleen had burst and she had lost a pint of blood inside of her. The vet told me it didn't look good, she probably wouldn't make it through he night, but he operated. I watched him remove her spleen and all of the extra little pieces that has broken off from the impact. He sewed her back up and told me to call him in the morning. She also had a broken femur, but that was the least of my worries.
The next day I was told to come and pick her up, that by some miracle she has survived. When I got there she was wagging her tail and had already eaten something. After a week of 24 hr supervision, taking her to work with me and cleaning her wound she was looking good.
Then Tuesday evening she started to look bad. She had been crying but I didn't think much of it considering what she had been through, but when I noticed her food bowl hadn't been touched and she wouldn't even eat treats I got worried. Her breath also smelled horrible. I took her to the vet at 11pm. He said she had a high temperature and he wanted to open her up to make sure she didn't have an infection. Gerardo and I gave her kisses and left.
Yesterday morning he operated and found something awful. She indeed has an infection (treatable) but he also found that all of her intestines were fused together along with her ovaries and uterus. Apparently here were microscopic lesions on her intestines from the impact of the fall and they had healed together in a way that was pretty much inoperable. This means she couldn't eat or poop, which explains her terrible breath. He said we could try but it would be very unlikely to work and would mean a lot more suffering. He suggested we put her down while she was anesthetized and I reluctantly agreed...
Today Gerardo and I went for her body and hiked her up the cruzita into the hills behind the city and found the exact tree that we had visited and rested at about 2 years before. We dug her a hole (in rock using an ice pick and a spade, not easy) at the base of the tree with a beautiful view on a beautiful day. We wrapped her in her blanky and gave her her fuzzy and her favorite ball. We covered her with dirt and rocks in very Mexican fashion and hung her collar on a branch before we left.
I'm extremely sad to lose my baby Chula but very grateful that I had another week with her after her accident. Everything happens for a reason...
I've attached pics of her burial site and views. Today is also Dia De Las Flores (Day of the Flowers), which is a big deal in Guanajuato. I think it's significant that we buried her today.
I'll catch up with happier stories and pictures soon.
Love
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