[IluvLucy]

I've written on this forum before about baby sitting my son's cat, Buddy. Russ was a cop for 9 years and came across 3 young boys one day chasing a kitten with baseball bats. He pulled over and the kitten ran straight up his leg. Russ put him inside his shirt, put the boys in his patrol car and took them home to their parents so he could tell them what the boys were doing.

Buddy is now 4 years old and is strictly Russ' cat. Last night @ 9:00, Russ called and said that Buddy was sick. He had not eaten at all yesterday and that was unusual in itself as he weighed 19 lbs. Russ said he just fell over and lost control of all his bodily functions. Our local vet's office was closed, but has an answering service. One of the vets called Russ back and told him to "watch" Buddy until this morning. Well, Russ called me and told me about it and I told him to pack Buddy up and we would find an ER vet. The closest one was 1.5 hrs away and we got there at about 11:30.

These were the most kind, compassionate people I've ever met. They never mentioned $, but took Buddy back immediately and began treating him. At first they thought he had asthma because of his labored breathing, but his temp was dropping and they began a series of x-rays and bloodwork that revealed positive for feline leukemia, heartworms, and feline AIDS. This cat was given all shots, etc by the local vet and was neutered and declawed about 7 months ago. We took him in then because he was attacked by a larger animal and Russ nearly lost him then. The decision to de-claw was hard to make, but to keep him inside was the best thing to do.

The vets last night told Russ they may be able to treat Buddy, but that it would be prolonging his suffering because they didn't expect him to make it thru the night. Russ broke down and cried like I haven't seen him do since my husband died a year ago. This huge, 31 year old man cried like a baby when the vet said that to put Buddy to sleep may be the best option because these diseases were so advanced. He held Buddy in his arms while the procedure was done and told him goodbye.

We got back to our hometown about 3:00 this morning and I dropped Russ and my DIL at their house so they could pick up their car. They brought Buddy to my house and buried him at 4:00 this morning beside my goldfish pond. The vet had him in a small cardboard casket decorated with hearts and little cat tracks and had written his name on it.

My son is absolutely devastated. He loved that cat with all his heart even tho he had never liked cats before. Buddy was just special to us all.

Please pray for Russ. It is just breaking my heart to see him like this.

(Sorry to be so long)