SWEETIE:

Sweetie was one of the first kitties that I fostered when I started with Maine Coon two years ago, in June 2003. I usually don’t like names like “Sweetie”, but one look at her – and that was her name. Her fur was soft like velvet; she was a little tabby with white feet and a sweet spirit. She eventually went to Carol, another foster, who took wonderful care of her until her arthritis became so bad that she could not give her the sub-q fluids that Sweetie’s kidney failure required. In addition, Carol’s own Maine Coons that she had adopted from us reacted negatively to Sweetie. Eventually she went to live with my vet in “hospice care” where she received her fluids as needed, love and attention from volunteers, and a soft bed to sleep on. She lived at my vet for months until she went into renal failure and could not survive. She never had her own “home” and her own family which was very sad for me… but she did not die in the shelter, which would have been her fate had we not rescued her. Sweetie went to Kitty Heaven in the winter of 2005.

Elaine Lyford-Nojima, Winter 2005