Our youngest cat, Maggie May, a six and a half year old solid black longhair, died in our arms today. She had cancer.

We had known for several months that the end was coming. She began losing weight in April and the Vet performed every test known to veternary medicine on her, eliminating all the likely culprits like feline AIDS and feline leukemia. He finally diagnosed her with either stomach or intestinal cancer. He said he could do nothing more than open her up and do an exploratory surgery, but that would only confirm his diagnosis, not cure her and it would be horrendous on her. We chose not to put her through that.

She was with us to the end, but earlier this week it was evident the end was near. My wife, Jannie, and I dug a small grave in our front yard for her. Yesterday, she became incontinent and could no longer stand up on her own. She just lay in Jannie’s arms and looked up at her, staring at her with those big green eyes of hers, telling Jannie it was alright to let her go.

We took her to the Vet and he confirmed that she was unresponsive to stimuli and severely anemic and it was “past her time to go.”  He gave her a sedative and then an euthanasia shot and we held her as she slipped from this life into the arms of our loving Lord.

Do pets go to heaven?  I certainly hope so. We have hopes of holding her and chasing after her once again in heaven one day.

But today we are saddened. We have lost our dear Maggie May, and even though we still have two older cats: LilyPoo and Chloe, we will miss our little Maggie May.

May God bless everyone who has ever lost a pet.