June 22, 2006 after a visit to one of the shelters, our home opened up to include yet another rescue. Guinevere was an overweight, abused senior who was destined to be PTS because no one wanted to handle her care. She was laying on the floor of a small cage when I saw her and when they opened up the cage door, she crab walked and hopped over to me and settled down in my lap. I was sitting on the floor. Our deal was sealed and she left with us that day.

Since that time, Guinevere has lived on the floor of our bedroom. Her bed was a chaise lounge chair pillow and her security was a large cloth kennel or a quick duck under the bed when something disturbed her.

She loved to be groomed and brushed was impossible to pill and had quite an attitude especially about food. She was so courageous, living through the type of abuse that would simply make you gasp. She endured several controversial treatments from me, including accupuncture as a way of alleviating the pain she was dealing with with her misshapen limbs.

This morning we both said goodbye to this cat of courage. Her recent senior panel (she was 21+ years old) showed she had cancer. Since she has already been through enough trauma to last a lifetime, we allowed her to meet death on her terms with dignity- while she still had her grace about her.

I knew something was up because the litter pan she used had recently started to resemble an olympic sized pool when it came to her urine. The cancer showed up in her kidneys.

I hope this is the final goodbye for the felines here for 2008. I am comforted in that Guinevere now can move about the heavens unencumbered by a reluctant body. She also found a new friend on her journey as my friend Dusty also said goodbye to one of her senior friends. Louie was 15 years old when he met his angels.

Dusty said that she thought she was okay with it, that it was “time.” I told her if you EVER are okay with it, then that is when you walk away from rescue because you have lost the compassion that drove you into rescue in the first place.

Bye Guinnie- thank you for all the lessons you bestowed on me- You take with you a large piece of my heart in your leaving