February 8, 2003:

Dear diary....again I must bow my head in shame for not writing in this column for SO LOOONG!
There have just been so many tough times, and life has thrown us some curve balls that have taken us a while to catch our breath from.

First of all, 2002 did not start out on a happy note here for our family.
We lost our precious Cookie to a ruptured blood clot near her heart.
It's hard to write in words about the shock I got when I went into the cat's bedroom on a Sunday morning in January, 2000, to find Cookie dead and cold on the floor. I just couldn't believe it - it didn't seem real at all, as I had had an extra check and brush on every one of our cats the evening before, and she was fine. So she must have died fast, which in some way is a comfort, though I miss her terribly!!

Then, just about a month after I lost my chocolate sweetheart, Willow was expecting babies (we knew there were 4 from taking an x-ray). The birth started out fine. She delivered her first kitten, but then the process stopped. Willow was not interested in her baby at all, either. After a while with a growing feeling that something was wrong, we took her into our vet, where they did a c-section. 3 dead babies were taken out. They also sterilised her at the same time.
After a c-section or any type of operation, the cat is always "out of it" for a little while. I had been trying to take care of the one living kitten, but Willow showed absolutely no interest in it at all. We thought it she needed some time to recover and to get back to senses, as they usually do. But after 1 1/2 days she suddenly took an unexpected turn for the worse. It happened so fast that there was no time to call the vet, and she died in ther "daddy's" arms.

It's very difficult for me to write much about what has happened. So I won't go on and on about details. Should anyone want to hear more, please contact me and I will try to come through for you!
At least we KNOW that the deaths were NOT in any way related to viruses or any other type of infectious nature. Even though this will never bring our loved ones back,  it IS a small comfort.

Bye for now....hope to be back in not so distant future (!!)