Jill's Journey

It’s an anniversary of a different kind for Jilly today!  Yes…I like to try to think of any and every type of anniversary I can think of.  One year ago today, Jill completed her course of IV chemotherapy with her last treatment (no I didn’t memorize the date, I had to look it up!).  So happy chemoversary to Jill!!!  I honestly cannot believe it’s been a year.  It’s so trite to say – but it REALLY feels like just yesterday she was finishing up chemo and I was worrying about “what next?”.  Well…what next was NOTHING!

We gave metronomics a shot for a few months – but that didn’t work out so well for her tummy.  It was truly frightening for me to accept that “doing nothing” was OKAY.  But I did….and it WAS!  Jill is now going on 16 months cancer-free (KNOCK ON WOOD).  Seeing her go through two surgeries and chemotherapy was obviously very hard for me, but I can honestly say accepting the fact that just leaving her alone to be a happy kitty and live life with no treatment was almost just as hard.

It’s strange sometimes.  I think back to this time last year and so much was going on I was able to make a blog post about this journey almost bi-weekly.  And now…all is quiet (KNOCK ON WOOD).  Sometimes I’ll look at Jill and think “Does she even know what she went through?”…..I honestly don’t think so.  Our pets are such fighters.  It amazes me.  I never ever gave it any thought before this all began and now it truly amazes me all the stories I’ve seen here and we’ve been inspired each and every one.

And so life goes on……and even though it’s quiet I know my little one is still fighting her war and she doesn’t even know how many battles she’s already won.

And now for your viewing pleasure….

Hey…

Where’d Jill go?…..

Oh, that’s right…

IN MA BELLY!!!!!!!!!!!! NOM NOM NOM

My Jack is really quite the lover.  He really really really truly loves his sister.  And she just keeps scooting further away from him…………………..

Jill Here.

So my grandmaw and grandpaw came home from their excellent vacation.  I am unhappy about this because it means my friend Belle had to leave.  Me and Belle love to snuggle and run around.  Mom tried to convince them to let her live with us, but it didnt work.  So when Mom got home from seeing my grandpawrents, she said she had a surprise.  Grandmaw and grandpaw sent her home with a new pet for us!

Do they think I’m stupid?………I am not Jack, he fell for it hook line and sinker!!!!!

Today is Jill’s 15 Month Ampuversary!  15 Months on 3 legs and 15 months cancer free!  I can hardly believe how fast the time has flown and I count my lucky stars for every single day I have with her.  I know each day we have is a gift and from the day she got the diagnosis 20 months ago, each additional day is an added bonus!

I am happy to report that she continues to do well and is loving life 🙂

Please excuse my hoody, it was cold!:

It’s been a rough week around here, so we just wanted to say Happy Friday everyone!!! And provide a little comic relief from the jesters in Jill’s court. Have a great weekend everyone! xoxo

Here is Jack in the Box

Belle having a bad hair day…….

Belle um I dont even know……..she looks possessed…….

And of course the Queen herself…………must be a bad angle…….

Jill Here.

I just wanted to wish everypawdy a very very happy hippity hoppity Tripawds day!  Mom was havin some technical glitchy witches yesterday so we are a day late.  What a wonderful day to celebrate!!  I love all my Tripawd friends and miss all my Tripawd friends we have lost this year.  We cant express enough how much this place means to us.  We come here for hope every single day.

Everything is going pretty good around here.  It is very cold in NY so I am spending lots of time cuddling with my friends and Mom.  Here is some of what I have been up to:

Some Kitteh Aerobics:

I gots me a new scratcher because Mom said I was being bad and scratching the couchy.  She didnt get it I cant scratch my post MOM I cant stand on just ONE hind leg! So I got this laying down scratcher…good stuff!

I like to watch this maniac run around like a crazy nut.  The other day she put my tail in her mouth.  She is not too bright sometimes.

And here are some pitchers of me just hangin around….Belle likes to cuddle up to me because its been so cold.  She provides me no warmth though shes like a little tissue.

Today is my baby boy Jackson’s 11th birthday!  Many of you know all about Jill, but I thought I would share a little background on how Jack came into my life.

In my Junior year of college one of my roomates and I woke up one morning and decided we wanted a kitten.  Regardless of the fact that we lived in a house with a strict “no animals” policy, we decided we would get one anyway.  Being the um…idiot 20 year olds we were, we didnt think about going to a shelter, but looked in the Washington Post and saw an ad for a woman who was selling kittens for 100$.  So off we drove to Maryland (we were in DC for college) and met Mr. Jack.  He was a 6 week old cute little ball of super cute cute cuteness! And I instantly fell in love.  For about 6 months he lived with 5 girls and was the man of our house.  He would come home with me for vacations back and forth to NY laying just like this the entire drive:

BUT THEN our landlord found out about Jack.  Being the super friendly cat he is, the landlord rang the doorbell one day and Jack came a runnin to the door.  So off to NY to live with my parents Jack went to live until graduation.  He loved living with my parents.  I was half afraid they would never give him back.  My dad started referring to him as “my Jacky boy” and Jack became good friends with our dog Basha:

But in May 2004, I moved back to NYC and Jack came to live with me again and was all MINE.  He did seem to miss having a dog around as he began to rip all his fur out.  At first I thought it was an allergy, but I brought him to the vet who told me he was lonely and anxious and that is how Jill came into our lives.  So really, I have Jack to thank for my little Jill!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO  YOU JACK.  I love you so much my “little” boy.  While Jill is my clingy, sweet kitty…Jack is my funny guy, my buddy.  Always providing comic relief, a head butt and a good conversation.  And since most of you have only seen Jack at his um…heaviest, I thought it would be fun to show you my boy at his smallest.  These pictures are from the first week I got him.  He truly was the CUTEST kitten (sorry Jill).

and my boy, present day….

It’s so nice to be able to write a blog post about a good problem for once.

Jill is moving along beautifully.  Having just marked her 14 month ampuversary, she is doing just great.  She recently went to the vet because she was having some stress related peepee issues after my sisters cat visited.  Just wanted to make sure it was indeed stress related and she was all healthy.  And she was!  Abdominal X-Ray and Urinalysis checked out A-OK…but…

JILL IS GETTING FAT. (dont tell her I said that)

Yes it was just 6 months ago when we had quite the scare and she had lost 15% of her body weight and she was down to 8 lbs 10 ozs (she was 11 lbs 6 ozs normally).  Quite the scare she gave me.  We eventually determined it was from the metronomic dose of Leukeran that she was on and we stopped that and she has been on the up..and up……and apparently UP since then.  OK…so maybe the weight scare got me carried away a little.  And you know, she did have cancer, so OK I give her some treats every now and then.

But last week she weighed in at just under 12 pounds!  Rut roh…..Well ok I know she cant gain more weight because she does only have three legs to support her, but it does make me a tiiiiiny bit hapy, because I know this just means shes healthy 🙂  SO FINALLY we have a GOOD problem on our hands 😀

Here are some pictures of curvy Jill:

She’s finally learning from her big brother:

Today is Jilly’s 14 month ampuversary! Things are moving along swimmingly.  I’ve been a little absent as of late, because work has been quite busy, but Jill has been doing great.  She has a new little uh habit of peeing on my bed which we are trying to figure out.  It started when my sisters cat Lucy came over while my sister had to go to Hong Kong.  Lucy is not quite the nicest cat in the world and I saw Lucy attack Jill one day in the litter box and now Jill’s vet thinks Jill may have a touch of PTSD about using her litterbox.  She’s had her urine checked out and an abdominal x-ray done and she looks physically a-ok, so we are just working on calming her down a bit.

Otherwise, things are great.  Belle is currently here visiting, which Jill is very happy about.  They cuddle all day long.  I’m so proud of my little kitty.  14 months of fighting and still going strong.  Still the same loveable, cuddly, smushy, mushy girl I love.   My mom reminded me the other night, when we first got the diagnosis, she said to me, “every day now you have with her is an extra gift” and I am reminded of that every day.

Here are some photos of this past months, since I’ve been absent, I’ve included a bunch 🙂 and a video of me trying to chat last night, but Jill was having none of it.

xoxo,

Erica & Jill