Our Final Update

Seven years ago, I adopted Ari Fleischer from a local animal rescue when she was about six years old.  Today, we said good-bye to her.

We are not sure if it was the cancer, but she lost a great deal of weight fairly rapidly, developed a tremor, became incontinent, and stopped eating.  As we watched her withdraw more and more, we made the difficult decision to say good-bye.

Ari had a great and full life, and we hope that her story has helped and continues to help others who have received a fibrosarcoma diagnosis.  Thank you for all of the support and good wishes that each of you have left on the blog.

Ari will always have a special place in our hearts.

An Update

Ari Fleischer is still doing very well.  She has some unrelated thyroid issues, but is largely in good health and thankfully, still cancer-free.  She is playful and fun!  She has decided that she prefers to be separated from the other cats, so we do keep her in a separate space.  We let her out with the others when she expresses an interest in joining them, but that doesn’t happen often.  She seems to enjoy her life though, and we are thrilled about our decision.

I am so glad to hear from those of you who have found this blog helpful in your decision-making process.  I know it is so difficult.

Here are some updated photos of Ms. Fleischer.

Thanks for reading!

An Update

Ari Fleischer is doing so very well!  She has completely recovered from her surgery!

We were very fortunate that she did not have to have any chemotherapy or radiation.  And also fortunately, we have not had any reoccurrence of the cancer.

We reintroduced her to the other cats after about a month or so, and it took about a week for things to calm down.  The other cats were very curious, and Ari mostly wanted to be left alone.  She was never a terribly active cat to begin with, but now, she doesn’t jump a great deal.  She can and does run through the house, but she does not jump on to things (instead, she sits on the floor and meows to be lifted up).  She sleeps with us every night.

Here is Ari helping us do important things on the computer:

And here is Ari sleeping in:

And finally, here is Ari getting ready for the holidays:

Staple Removal

Today, the staples came out.  And Ari is doing fabulously.  The vet said she looked fantastic this morning.

As you can see, she is healing up quite nicely!

She is also becoming a diva.  She has been very spoiled as of late, and she now is growing demanding.  All wet food, all the time is her m.o.

We have started letting her out of the bedroom for short, supervised trips.  But the other felines have not been welcoming, so we keep it in small doses.

We’ll keep you posted.

Video–Ari Climbs the Stairs to the Bed (with ease) (and for treats)

We finally got some video of Ari!  In this video, she is stubbornly refusing to move until I get out the treats.  Let’s see if I can figure out how to post it.

As you can see, she is doing very well.  She is having no trouble getting up and down the stairs to the bed.

Last night, we came home from dinner to find her perched up in a waist high basket that I have never seen her get into before, even when she had four legs!

We are looking forward to having her staples removed on Monday.  After that, we start the difficult process of getting her assimilated back into the culture of the house and its other feline and canine residents.  This week, we have started bringing her out for short periods of time and giving the other animals treats when they don’t hiss at her.  It’s a start.

Day 8

Ari is doing so very well. 

Day 5 was a big day in our house.  She used the steps up to the bed ALL BY HERSELF!  And has been doing so every day since.  She is not having any trouble.

This will be “too much information” for a lot of people, but those who are going through it probably will want to know.  Day 5 is the first day she pooped post-surgery.  And it was fine.  No mess.  No problem.  Just poop.

On Day 7, I noticed she jumps off the bed frequently and has no trouble doing so.  Lands perfectly every time.

She is eating like a horse.

And loves all the attention she is getting.

More pics soon!

Day 4

Today, Ms. Fleischer has been unstoppable.  She has been on the move and even managed to navigate her steps to the bed (with a little assistance and a lot of treats!).

She’s looking good!

Day 3

It was so difficult to put Ms. Fleischer back in the carrier this morning.  It was obvious that she was scared, and I felt like the bad guy.  I mean, look at this face…

But we arrived at Georgia Veterinary Specialists and immediately felt a little better.

They took out the drain, and we were out in five minutes.  The surgeon said that she looked fantastic!  Ari was relieved.  We scheduled an appointment to have her staples removed on next Monday.  She is counting down the days!

When we got home, Ari was significantly more mobile than she had been previously.  I think that drainage bag had been weighing her down.  And she was certainly happy to get that tee shirt off!  She seems to be recovering very well.

Day 2

Ari appeared to be in a little pain when she woke up this morning.  We don’t know this for sure, but she was more vocal than usual and followed us as we walked around the bedroom.  This behavior stopped shortly after we gave her some pain medication.  After that, she curled up on her cat bed and went back to sleep.

This evening, she appears to be doing well.  She has been eating all day and using the litterbox.

She does not seem to be uncomfortable, but has not been moving around very much.  She did curl up on her dad’s chest and take a nap earlier this afternoon (which made them both very happy).

Thankfully, we are having the drain removed in the morning.  I think that will make movement significantly less cumbersome.

Day 1

This is Ari’s first day home.  She is doing very well, and we are so proud of her.  She does not appear to be in any pain, although she is wearing a medicated pain patch, and we give her liquid pain medication orally every eight hours.

The vet sent her home in a baby tee shirt to help cover the surgical incision.  The surgical incision is very large.  She also is wearing a drain that will be removed in a couple of days.

She is able to move around, although her movement is a bit awkward.  She seems to have some difficulty trying to go in the direction in which she wants to go.  She does not try to move around much.  She ate some food last night and used the litterbox.  She did stumble and fall trying to get out of the litterbox.  She has not attempted to jump or use any stairs.  We are keeping her in our bedroom, isolated from our other animals.  She slept in our bed with us last night.

Overall, she is doing much better than we expected at this point.