Cleo, Cat under almost certain "Death Sentence"; & our Son's Church Disappointment

 
This photo is of Cleo (aka "Monkey Puss", aged nearly 8) - in one of her favourite places in our back garden. Only a week ago she was diagnosed with having an aggressive cancer of her mastoid area (breast tissue, to humans!). The vets have been also looking to find if she has any other internal cancer - we are awaiting tests which were done in middle of last week. We might have heard last Friday, but the result was not ready. She is a really gorgeous little cat, friendly and sweet natured, and does not yet seem at all ill. We had taken her to the vet's about another problem, that turned out to be nothing at all. Her bigger "twin" brother Charlie is quite fit and goes out all night, but we keep her in. There are foxes about here. [Original post date: July 2nd - edited July 6th]

This is such a blow to us, as we only adopted these two cats as mature 7-year olds, apparently healthy adults 8 months ago, to replace poor old Whitton (aged nearly 18) who died last September of kidney failure and cancer. This was meant to be therapeutic for us all, but especially for my husband D., who has no comfort from belief in a "Higher Power" (God) - as he has no faith. Instead, he was in tears at the sad news. She is as sweet as any cat we have had, our of a long line of cats since 1968. Charlie too went missing for 3 hours today - but luckily I called him and he was found, in "strange territory" - he'd got lost.

As for Tom, my son - he has had problems being accepted back into our church after his few months in prison following his actual offence. They are only accepting him back on Sundays, when it is a general worship day. He is allowed to visit the house for a meal and some fellowship only then. But he wants to go over there twice more in the week, and has been barred from that, for the time being - until he proves himself to be stable enough. The leaders or elders argue that he needs to take this in stages, for this own mental health, in case he "crashes", as he has done in the past. I can see their point, but he strongly feels church "fellowship" is what he needs. He got a lot of it in prison. He says: what of the Prodigal Son story? Isn't it like that for him? And what would Jesus do (WWJD) - in the well-known phrase. He felt like an outsider when he was there this morning (when we worshipped under the big trees in sunny Hyde Park, Central London). So this evening he did not stay around the church, but went instead to his old church which is in our own neighbourhood. He still wants to go to the church we now belong to, but not if they won't accept him NOW on more than 1 day a week. There's a meal on Thursdays called the "Welcome Meal" - but it seems he is not! They refer to their resident families and their safety needs, but T. is no threat to them. Everything there is very well supervised. He is still debating this in his mind (after 5 days)- but has not yet joined another church. He admits he had grown away from the JF church while in jail.

We just have to work through it, I guess. I have found Al-Anon helpful as ever. They teach us to accept a tough situation, and to detach. Put it all with God, our Higher Power. I had been looking forward to Tom and me doing things together in the church... He has otherwise coped quite well since leaving prison. He is going to AA meetings, and getting back with the local help agencies. We are unable to get him rehoused just now (I tried pursuing it) - but hope something may happen on this in due course. In the meantime, we let him stay on here with us - it is quite OK as long as he does not drink or go off the rails again. (On the whole I love having him back!) He realises he must not drink, or he risks going back inside, but it is working his AA prgramme that really stops him each day.

I hope things with our church will work out for Tom. I am now adding fresh news about Cleo's health. They told us they cannot operate. If there were no other cancer, she would have been able to get through, though it would have been a tough op. for her. But they found other primary cancers internally, though these are small as yet. It means she will gradually decline, weaken and die [or be put down] in a few months, as nothing can be done. We have to enjoy her while we can, and give her a good summer. I am quite annoyed that the investigations and tests cost us over £900, but there's now nothing the vet's can do. Cleo is still, apparently, quite well right now - she is running or jumping about and giving us much feline affection. [She licks our faces and hands - of course we wash them afterwards!] She will be able to enjoy her last summer - and we pray that she will go into remission and be with us longer. It means that we can not all now go away on holiday in September (for a week). D. will stay and look after her, probably. We would only all go if she remains perfectly well by then. I will go with Tom (unless he is in rehab again) - we will go via public transport. I am now signing off - am going out later this evening.

All the best - love and peace, Tigey