Some of you may know of my three-legged Calico named Magnolia. In 2000 I found her on the side of I-40 on my way to Wilmington to visit a girl I was dating at the time.
The kitten was sitting on the side of the road watching something in the median. I went past and pulled over and started walking down the shoulder. When I was about 30 feet away she stepped right into the road in front of a 15-passenger van, which jammed on it's brakes. All I can think of now is a bunch of old people plastered all over the dash! The kitten turned around and ran into the weeds.
So, I walk over there and even though there was not a soul around to here me, I sheepishly said "Here, kitty kitty kitty". I will be damned but she came right over to me. Scooped her up, put her in the truck and took her to the beach. She climbed onto the dash and watched the highway, looked out of all the windows and obviously wasn't too worried about being in a moving vehicle.
Had her ever since. Named her Magnolia since that was the closest town to where I found her. In August 2012 a nickel sized lumped turned into a thumb sized lump in about a month so the vet said that she would live if she took her leg off. So, on a Wednesday that's what happened. Brought her home on Friday. That weekend, with about a 7" incision where her leg used to be, she broke out of her room in the house and went down to the basement to use HER litter box.
I started referring to her as Incorrigible, which is what she always was.
In April I found out that the cancer had come back after about a year and a half. It was mostly inoperable so we decided to leave it alone. Since it was a fibrous sarcoma and would continue to grow out, we figured that the best thing to do, since it wasn't causing any pain or limiting her in any way, was wait until it got large enough that it ruptured her skin. At that point, the vet would go in, "debulk" it, and sew her up.
With steroids and antibiotics, Magnolia did pretty damn well.
At that point the sarcoma became really angry and aggressive. Magnolia, who was planning on using every one of her nine lives, fought well. And even though her immune system was tremendously burdened, it found time to totally heal the scar from the debulking procedure.
But, it became too much and Tuesday I took her to the vet for the last time. Though it was the right thing to do it was still difficult.
I really, really miss her.
Here are some pics. She's a kitten here, shortly after I got her, with my other cats, Nick and Finway (brothers) and Gideon (yawning). They are all gone now.
Synchronized napping with Ellie the dog.
Magnolia checking out the newly arrived box with the '60s NR. It was automatic that any new cardboard box was presented to her for inspection.
Magnolia and me over the weekend. She always photographed well.
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