Tigger’s Journey
After a little over 17 years, Tigger passed away on October 7th, 2023.
A couple of years ago, the vet found a bone eating cancer in his left arm (forgot the specific type of cancer). Fortunately, we caught it pretty early and we made the decisive action of amputating his left arm – which ended up grabbing all of the cancer and saving his life! Tigger’s life as a tripod was as normal as any other cat with all of their limbs. Tigger would still swat at his toys, jump up pretty high onto our bed/table/couch, etc. Of course there were some things that were a little harder for him when it came to balance and cleaning after himself after using the litter box (I pretty much had to cover it for him every single time for the last couple of years). Of course we made things easier for him as much as we could – got him a couple of stairs for him to use (which he absolutely loved), got a short and wide litter box for him, joint medications, and other little everyday things.
At this point, Tigger also had very little teeth – about 2 or 3 left. About 2 or or 3 months before his passing, we noticed he was being very picky with his food and soon to follow, starting not eating at all. At first we thought he was being picky or something along those lines and we got him a variety of foods for him to try. At some point, however, we noticed chattering when eating…something that sadly would only get worse. We decided to go to the ER because Tigger had lost a significant amount of weight in the few days he was struggling to eat – they noticed one of his only teeth seemed very infected and it probably needed to go. As soon as we got home, we emailed our vet and immediately scheduled his surgery to remove his tooth.
The surgery went as well as it could and I was very relieved that he would soon start eating again! Although the tooth extraction went well (in fact, it sort of just fell on its own), the vet also noticed a fracture on the left side of his jaw and they weren’t exactly sure what it was – a cancer or a really bad infection that ate away at the bone. Our vet took some blood and gum samples and sent them in to confirm if it was cancer or not. A week later, we received confirmation that Tigger had squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), a pretty terrible cancer where life expectancy is about 1- 3 months from diagnosis. We were devastated…
His particular SCC was also towards the back of his jaw which made surgery very difficult and possibly worse. There were of course a couple of other options to treat the cancer but with current advancements in technology and feline healthcare, prospects were not good regardless. We opted to make him as comfortable as possible for as long as possible.
Tigger’s chattering would only get worse, as well as his pain. The lesion inside of his mouth would grow…the cancer on his jaw would slowly get bigger in the coming weeks. Tigger ended up being on 4 different medications that would have to be given to him at various times: Onsior, Gabapentin, Buprenorphine, and Clindamycin. Of course, too much of any of these (except for probably the Gabapentin) would eventually lead to other problems – these were never meant for long term usage, but in Tigger’s case, we had no choice.
Early on, one of the biggest struggles was giving him the pills he needed to take – eventually, what ended up helping us was a pill popper we found on amazon to basically shoot it down his throat. A combination of this strict schedule and spending tons of time with him, Tigger was for the most part, always pretty comfortable. The real struggles were his last couple of weeks where even while on meds, eating was very very difficult – to the point where we needed to start using a syringe to feed him as much/best we could.
Eating around him or snacking around him became very difficult because we did not want to tempt him. Eventually, because of this and his increase in pain, we decided to schedule an in-home euthanasia service with A Gentle Goodbye. As far as this terrible experience goes, A Gentle Goodbye treated Tigger with the utmost respect and care and treated us with patience and compassion. As the name suggests, Tigger fell asleep before gently passing away in his sleep.
Tigger’s Last Couple of Days
The day before the service, we spent THE WHOLE DAY being with him, happy, giving him his space when he wanted and the attention when he seeked it. We put on our most festive halloween fits and started decorating around our home while Tigger sat in his usual spot on the carpet being as curious as ever. Although it didn’t exactly work out, we tried giving him some of his favorite things – cheese and bread. Although he got PLENTY of snacks, bean burrito, and milk bread when he was still able to eat just weeks ago. We also did some arts and crafts by doing some paw prints!
For some reason, Tigger also wanted to go outside. Now, this was weird because he NEVER wanted to go outside…or even the stairs leading to the outside. But this time around, his curiosity led him all the way outside into the cold grass. At some point, I tried picking him up to take him back inside only to receive his angry hissing to put him back down – I of course obliged.
We of course all slept together, like usual. Never did the day or night seem shorter to us than that day.
The day of, he was surrounded by love. Many brought him flowers and others showed up to join us for his passing.
Our Little Tigger
Tigger lived his life the way he wanted to live it. He did as he pleased, ate what he wanted, slept where he seemed fit, and snacked whenever he demanded it. Up until his final days, he vehemently ate his snacks as best he could. Hopped around curiously smelling anything new we would leave on the floor, and sat with us whenever he got the chance to.
Tigger was a brave and strong kitty. He knew how much we loved him and we knew how much he tolerated us (hehe). So much of our lives and time revolved around Tigger, especially after the passing of his sister a few years back. He was the motivation behind many things and what made gloomy days bright and cozy.
He liked when I carried him around looking at things around our home or just talking to him – something I will miss very much. Our bed now bigger and colder…as the couch. The reminders from amazon, Target, Chewy “It’s time to restock xxx for Tigger!” are reminders to what was just recently.
Although we knew this was what was best for Tigger, it still hurts. Tigger will forever be in our hearts.