Ranger

I know this will come as a huge surprise to all of you, but Ranger passed away Saturday afternoon, August 16th at the age of 16.

He had been doing great taking his "courage" pill and was improving each week. Last Thursday in the late afternoon Sarah and I observed him not acting right and I took him to Canyon where Dr. Alcala felt a huge baseball size mass in his abdomen. She did an ultrasound and took a biopsy and I brought him back to Blue Bell. He went downhill very rapidly on Friday - not eating and lethargic. I could tell he was even more uncomfortable Saturday AM and had still hardly eaten anything. I offered him chicken which he normally loves and some stinky fish flavor Fancy Feast and he just licked a small amount of each.

I called Dr. Alcala and she said that the biopsy had come back and he had a very malignant sarcoma that was so aggressive that it most likely wasn't even there 2 weeks ago. With his rapid decline and poor prognosis it was decided to put him to sleep.

I held him in a blanket on the patio in the sun for awhile and then took him outside on the front lawn - something I have only ever done with one other cat - Rusty, his buddy who he came to Blue Bell with. He sat by my side in the shade and would look up at me every few minutes and then crawled up onto my lap. He had the most expressive eyes - with the black eyeliner around each. I told him he would be with his buddy Rusty and all the other Blue Bell cats and that no one would chase after him anymore and there would be lots of chicken.

Donna came and took him down to Canyon and was with him and holding him in her arms when he passed away. The interesting thing, is that Rusty died one year ago the previous day.

His full name was Rescue Ranger, as he was rescued from a roof when he was little. I will always remember his soccer skills - he loved to chase after dry food I would throw on the floor. I would toss a piece at a time and he would run after it and kick it with his paws and chase it and then eat it. He was so happy doing that. Ranger was a brave little guy - so small for a male cat so I called him a "catlet". He lived in the shadow of Rusty for so many years and never really found his place after Rusty died, but he was always trying and just wanted to be loved.

We will miss you little guy!!