petrea_mitchell | RIP Phosphor

Marlene, Phosphor, and Monty in a sunbeam

We had to say goodbye to Phosphor this morning.

In December, we noticed that he wasn't eating much. Late December, we got a diagnosis of aggressive lymphoma. He went on a stopgap medication and started chemotherapy in January. He rallied for a bit, but ultimately the chemo wasn't having any effect, and so we switched to palliative care.

Last Saturday, he made it clear that he was done with pills and other medications, so we stopped them and he got a quiet few days before giving the signal that he'd had enough.

Shout-out to Compassionate Care for making the last chapter easier, which I hadn't even heard of before calling my vet's office to touch base on the situation yesterday.

Phosphor was born feral. His sisters who we weren't able to trap as kittens are still with us, but we've yet to see a feral tomcat last more than a couple years as part of the backyard colony, even TNRed. So I manage to think we did him a favor by bringing him indoors.

He's been every cat's favorite cat; he helped tame feral kittens, grew up to take care of the cat he considered his adopted mother, mothered our huge but insecure alpha cat when she was a kitten, and was a best buddy to our youngest.

I think he had a good life, I just wish we could have done more for him.