It’s hard to say goodbye…

Suffice it to say, 2023 is already starting off on the wrong foot.

While I have some positive stuff going on as far as work goes, which I can’t speak about quite yet, on the home front things have been rough.

I found out that Noreen, my biological dad’s wife, passed away on Dec. 31. We have been vetting with Willow since the fall, and things have progressed in a very negative direction since the start of the new year. Willow took a day trip to the vet while I was at work on Friday, and the bloodwork showed that she has gone anemic, nearly to the point of needing a blood transfusion.

This is on top of the irritable bowel and hyperthyroidism we have been fighting with medication. She’s also lost a little more weight, which, there isn’t much left to lose. My formerly 14 lbs. cat is a shadow of herself at 6.7 lbs.

Speaking with the vet on Friday, we are at the point where we either need to go all in, or prepare to say goodbye. Unfortunately, even if we did go all in, the vet couldn’t give any guarantees because, at the end of the day, Willow is a 13-year-old cat.

We don’t want to do it; I don’t want to do it, but Lynn and I talked and we have decided that we need to say goodbye to our sweet girl. We’ve made arrangements for the local vet to come and put her to sleep on Wednesday after Lynn gets off work at the bookstore.

Unfortunately, with the weight loss, and her not wanting to eat much, her energy is gone and she spends most of her days sleeping on a dog bed in the living room, not even bothering to go up to her favourite perch anymore. She just doesn’t have the quality of life. Needless to say, Lynn and I are heartbroken but we feel we are making the best decision we can for her and for us. I’m going to miss her though.

Wednesday is going to be rough.

On another note, I have to make some changes to my photography for the next few weeks. I was shooting a hockey game last night and my Canon M6 mii cratered on me. I think the shutter failed on it, which completely sucks. Fortunately, it is still under warranty. I was already planning on a road trip to Red Deer on Tuesday, but now it is including a stop at McBain Camera to get the warranty process started.

I’m just grateful that I still have my backup camera, an older but nearly new Canon T5i. Still, being that it is double the size and half the megapixels of the M6, I hope it is a quick turnaround for the repair.

With the way the year has started, I’m hoping my bad luck has front-loaded itself so the rest of the year can kind of cruise, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Kevin