Manon, a cat.

Yesterday was a tough day for us, because we had to put Manon to sleep. She was 18 years old, and she was a cat.Most specifically, she was a Calico, and if you talk to cat people, if cats in general are considered attitudinal, calicos are attitudinal cats. She clearly had a strong set of opinions on life and the universe was expected to adapt to them. It usually did.This was not a surprise to us. We had some dental work done with her at the start of the year and the vet found a growth on her jaw, which biopsy showed was cancer. After discussion of options with her and an oncologist, we set her up into palliative care, and it was suggested that typically we might get another 1-3 months with her. Here we are in mid-July, and it's been in the last week or so that it became clear it was time because we could no longer keep her life quality at a level we felt was acceptable for her.That doesn't make saying goodbye easier, and the place is incredibly quiet and empty right now but it was the right thing to do for her.18 years is an incredible lifespan for a cat; it is even moreso since she was adopted out of a shelter. Still, time takes its toll; she had arthritis and had good days and bad days and sometimes wanted some help on onto furniture; she became profoundly deaf so unless she saw you she had no clue you were nearby, and somewhere along the way she decided the litter box was only for peeing, and so she pooped elsewhere in the room and then went off to find Laurie to report in and demand it get cleaned up. I evidently failed at that key skill so I was never asked, same as I only got asked (well, "asked") to feed her if Laurie wasn't around.So she was definitely a Personality in very good ways and we're going to miss her. We do plan on bringing in a new generation of cats but not sure of the timing yet. They won't replace her, but they'll start a new set of memories for us that we both want. I just hope they use the litter box properly...I'm just starting to feel like I can function again; this has hit both of us hard. If I owe you email, I'm sorry, I'll get to it soon.