His blood was used to bring Tamlin back from the brink of death.  Tamlin's blood count had dropped very low and accounted for his strange meowing that was a sign of trying to get more oxygen to the brain.   If only I had known this before!  I could have told them on Monday that it was an emergency and things might have turned out differently.  Not only was he being given the very potent Frisky blood, he was being kept in an incubator with oxygen.  We waited for an hour and saw how much better he was doing.  Then we went home to have some dinner before coming back to get grumpy Frisky.  We spent an hour visiting with Tamlin before leaving.  He was very busy eating and drinking, but he was still happy to see us.  This was Wednesday, February 9th.

Over the next few days Tamlin continued to make good progress.  Our new vet explained that the time to begin interferon treatments was while the cat was still pretty healthy.  If we had known what we knew now, Tamlin would have started interferon a couple of years ago when he first had that bout with being sick.  Now we would have to hope he would get healthy enough to be able to start interferon.   We sure had high hopes on Thursday night during our visit with him.  He was feeling so perky that we had to ask a nurse help us get him back in the incubator because he was trying to escape.  This would be one of my favorite moments with Tamlin after he was hospitalized.  

Around midnight we received a call from the vets:  Tamlin had had a seizure.  It is felt that this was caused by the lack of oxygen when his red blood count was so low.  At 6am we received another call that he was still having the seizures.  The vet felt that his potassium levels might be causing them, so she was going to start treating him for that.  Around 4 that afternoon we had just gotten back from the grocery store and I got an upsetting message that the vet had called and I better rush right over because Tamlin might not last much longer.  Jessie and I both started crying and rushed right over.  We walked back to the incubator and stood crying over Tamlin.  I told Mike the technician that I knew we had to put Tamlin to sleep.  He said........ok, come fill out the paperwork.  So I left Jessie crying over Tamlin and went to take care of that. 

As I stood crying and writing I listened to a conversation between Mike and the vet on the phone.  Something jumped out at me in their conversation.  I said......uh.........did I have another option here?  Well Mike says........the vet is a little confused as to why you want to put Tamlin to sleep now when he's doing so much better.  She was going to release him to you today but wanted to make sure the seizures were under control.  Well yippiee!!!!!!  I don't want to put Tamlin to sleep!  Mike tore up the papers with a flourish.  He beat me back to the back room and told Jessie to not worry that it wasn't going to happen.  Jessie just stood there with his mouth open going.......huh?  It was quite a bit of confusion there for awhile, but everyone had happy smiles.  Wow.......what a rollercoaster ride Friday was!  Oh, the confusion in the message you ask?  Well.....the call had been made while I was out.  It was that Tamlin's blood counts had dropped.  It seems that this was to be expected because the vet had hydrated him.  If the cat is dehydrated, it elevates the blood count because there is less fluid to dilute it.  So when he was hydrated his counts dropped as expected.

Saturday morning we were discussing what we would do when we brought Tamlin home that day.  We were going to spoil him rotten.  Suddenly the phone rang around 11am.  It was the vet's office again.  Tamlin had started going into seizures again and nothing was stopping them this time.  The damage was just too great from the loss of oxygen before we got him to the vets.  If only we had known what that particular sort of crying meant on Monday.  It is a cat's way of trying to get more oxygen.

With very heavy hearts we drove back to the vets right away.  We walked back and looked at Tamlin in the incubator.  Jessie and I looked at each other then and said, "It's time.  CarMel told us we would know, and we do."  I didn't even want to wait another minute because this time Tamlin was suffering.  I told them we were ready and the doctor and a nurse came over and asked if we wanted to be with Tamlin while he was put to sleep.  We said yes and held him, petted him and told him how much we loved him.  The doctor and the nurse spoke in hushed tones as they explained each step of what was going on.  Then Tamlin gently breathed his last with us telling him what a good kitty he was.

Everyone at the vet's office was so sad because they were really pulling for Tamlin to get better.  They put us in a room with Tamlin so we could say our farewells.  I can't thank the staff enough for their kindness and sensitivity to our pain.  I'm not sure, but I think we stayed in the room together about 20 minutes.  We both petted Tamlin and had a long talk with him.  We advised him not to annoy God too much.  We told him to just go find a beautiful waterfall and play with the water until we were ready to join him.  He looked so peaceful and beautiful laying there with us.  We had a strong sense that Tamlin was smiling at us and asking us not to be too sad because he felt much better and was going to go play now. 

On the way home, Jessie said something.  He said he wanted to setup a domain for Tamlin and not let Tamlin's death be for nothing.  It all seemed so right then.  We would not let Tamlin have died in vain.  We would tell our story and educate other cat owners so they might not have to endure the pain that we did.  We now feel that Tamlin has earned his angel wings and he's up there driving God crazy but at the same time meowing happily that we are going to tell his story. 

For the full collection of photos, please stop by the gallery of images.  We learned another important lesson from all this.  Take lots of photos.  We didn't have a digital camera for most of Tamlin's life, and we regret that now.  We plan on bringing home a little kitty one day, and you can be sure we will take a lot of baby pictures this time.