Welcome Guest
Join here
Members Log-In
Privacy Policy

Monday May 12,2008

Baby, Bubba, Beast

by Varnya

It was 1994 and I was going to Lehman College in the Bronx. It was almost Halloween, and on my way into the bookstore here was this shiny black cat. I bent to pet him and saw that he had been very badly burned on the left side of his face. His ear was blackened, eye seared shut and all his whiskers on that side were gone.

He must have been in pain, but when I bent to pet him he rubbed his head on my hand and legs looking up at me with a wide expectant eye.

I began to walk away, I was living with family who did not want any more animals, but the little black cat followed me. That was it. I took him home.

A number of girls from the college helped me find a box and told me that I was doing a wonderful thing and would be repaid...I was. Baby was the smartest most affectionate cat anyone could ever have.

At the vet I was given medicine for his burns, and although the tip of his ear fell off, his eye was fine and so was his spirit. From the first night he slept with me, licking my face and nuzzeling and purring in my ear.

He was with me when I was lonely and listened to all the things you would not want to share with another human. He would bring back his mousy when you threw it, and even dropped the mousy in my grandmother's tea when she looked away from it to get her attention.

A few years ago his bad eye began to change color. It happened on and off and I would always bring him to the vet for medicine which would clear up the problem.

None of the vets ever mentioned cancer or iris melanoma which I later found information on on the internet. None of the vets even hinted that he should see a specialist, until this past summer. The medicine did not clear up the problem in his eye and seemingly overnight a tumor grew.

Baby was still playful and loving through all the vet appointmets which he hated with a passion. Afterwards he would bound up the stairs to our apartment and immediately go eat. It tore my heart out when they told me the eye needed to be removed... and even then, no one mentioned that these tumors are 70% malignant and that it would most likely spread.

The surgery was in August. After Baby came home he seemed tired, but he still slept nuzzeled up against myself and my boyfriend... We played for a few weeks and I thought everything was okay, but it wasn't.

In 3 weeks time he had lost weight and would not eat. I had to feed him with a syringe while he laborously purred...I got x-rays and steroids and by that time had no more money for an MRI or Chemo or Radiation. He didn't have insurance, no one would take credit.

I told myself