What Can We Do While They're Sick?

Is there any worse feeling than being next to someone you love who is sick and not being able to make them feel better? And when I say someone I mean human or animal.

Two years ago, I adopted my tortoiseshell cat, Stella, from the Humane Society. Three months later she had a breast cancer scare and went through an emergency mastectomy. I was heartbroken. To have to take my cat to the vet, leave her there for several nights! [is that not the hardest thing to do?], and then pick her up with her eyes sunken in, her tummy shaved, and then watch her bump into everything with her cone on. I felt absolutely horrible for her.

We made it through that and then a cross-country move three months later, but didn't realize how hard things were about to become. Stella and my parents' cat, Missy, [but really she was my cat too] were there for me every night when I came home from the hospital the week that my mom died. Another time that I had to sit and watch helplessly.

Eight months later, I sat beside Missy as she tried desperately to hang on to life but her lungs and old age just couldn't do it anymore and we lost her too.

But through those losses, as horrible as they were to go through and still are today -- I've had my Stella girl by my side. Late last night, Stella started not feeling well. At all. She was up on her perch above the refrigerator and I climbed up to get her down and she collapsed into my lap and snuggled up.

I decided it was time to close up shop and for the two of us to go to bed. I carried her in my room, got under the covers, and motioned for her to come over. She is really a dog, I'm sure of it. Instead of coming over to snuggle against the other pillow, Stella wedged herself between the edge of the bed and my shoulder. Where she would be closest to me. She laid her little head on my hand.

It sounds like it's back to the vet we go. A place I hate just as much as the hospital. Keep my sweet girl in your prayers this weekend and send some happy thoughts our way.

Sometimes all you can do is be there to comfort a loved one. No matter how hard it is to admit, you can't take the sickness away. Just be there. By their side. Whether they're human or animal, it makes a difference to them.