SYLVESTER TRIBUTE PAGE
On September 16th 2005 I lost my best buddy.
Sylvester came to me and my partner at the time in April 1991. My partner's Mother's Cat had just had a litter of kittens and we decided to have two - a Brother and a Sister. We went up to view the kittens in February 1991. We straight away chose a female as she was the only tortoiseshell in the litter and just stood out. We then had to choose the brother. Suddenly, a little black and white ball of fluff staggered up to me, looked up and tried to meow, but no sound came out. I fell in love with him straight away and so he was chosen. Brian (my ex) was very into Tweety & Sylvester cartoons so our new cat became Sylvester. I, unfortunately, was into Garfield so his sister ended up with that name. So, in April, we returned to pick them up and bring them home.
They were both great little kittens but I always had a special affection for Sylvester (or Vester as he became known). Garfield was great but she was always more aloof and not wanting affection whereas Vester was a real Daddy's Boy.
They were a great help during my break up with my ex in 1998 and when he moved away, they remained with me.
He always seemed to have a startled expression when people were in the house and one night when a few of my friends came round, one of them took a picture of Vester. To this day it is my favourite picture of him and I now have it in a frame on my wall.
Sylvester often used to come and sit with me when I was working on the computer and I miss that companionship a lot.
In September 2004, I took the cats to the vet for their annual flu jabs. It was then that the nurse spotted a lump on Vester's paw. She said it would have to be removed before he could have any injections. So I booked him in and it was removed. It was a couple of months later that I noticed another lump coming up. By this time my friend Vicki had purchased a Pug and was using the Animal Ark vet in Goodmayes, Essex. She said I should transfer to there as it was a superb vets. I did that and found she was right.
The vet, Lyndon, checked out Vester's lump and said it was a Mast Cell Tumour and could not believe that it had been left so long by the previous vets without treatment. All through 2005, he treated Vester but the lumps kept spreading covering all four paws and up his legs and eventually on to his face. He had one claw removed and there was always the danger of completely losing a paw at a later stage.
At the beginning of September 2005, I noticed that Vester wasn't eating and losing weight, and if he did eat he would just bring it straight back up. Then on the morning of Wednesday 14th September, I got up and found that he had been sick in the night and brought up a lot of blood. I rushed him to the vet and I was given a choice of having him put to sleep or having a Chemotherapy drip that would either help him or kill him the moment the fluid entered his body. I wanted to give Vester his last chance so went for the drip. He survived it and came home that night.
I took a picture of him that morning with Garfield. It was the last picture I took of him.
On the following morning, Thursday 15th, I saw how much he had deteriorated. He could hardly move and if he did he would just stagger into a dark corner and face the wall. I hoped it was the effect of the chemotherapy, but when he was the same the following morning, I knew that I would have to say goodbye to him.
At half past five that evening, myself, Mat, Vicki and Martin (my friends from my friends page) all went to the vets and cried as Vester was put to sleep.
I now have his ashes in a small casket just under his picture on the wall.
Vester was the greatest cat I ever had and I will always miss him terribly but at least he is no longer in any pain and he gave me fourteen and a half years of fun and friendship.
VESTER, I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU R.I.P. PRECIOUS
XXX
SINCERE THANKS TO LYNDON WHO FOUGHT AS HARD AS ME FOR VESTER - YOU'RE A GREAT VET!!
ALSO A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO SAID OTMANI, MY STATION MANAGER, WHO WAS SO KIND AND HELPFUL WITH TIME OFF WHEN SYLVESTER WAS ILL. THANKS A LOT, SAID!!