- Saying Goodbye to Clementine -

Today was HARD.

We have had our sweet Clementine for 4 short days and in that time fell completely in love with her. She was so snuggly, a purr machine and she loved to be by us.

Yesterday she started throwing up. I called the animal shelter and they said she was probably just transitioning into a new home. In the evening I heard her crying at 3 am and saw that she had been sick again. I camped out in the girls' Lalaloopsy sleeping bag on the kitchen floor with her for the rest of the night. Today she refused to eat and drink, was still getting ill and lethargic. Because it was the weekend we needed to take her to the Emergency Animal Hospital.

We decided to go to the Animal Hospital as a family as opposed to just one of us taking her so that the girls could be a part of the process that lie ahead and gain more understanding about why Clementine was hurting. We spent 3 hours in a tiny exam and waiting room with tired 3 and 4 year old girls who behaved beautifully.

During Clementine's exam they found that she had a high fever and the xray showed signs of intestinal blockage. They thought she had either swallowed something, was very constipated or had a parasite blockage. We all gave her hugs and kisses and told her we loved her and then went home to wait for a phone call.

An hour and a half later we received a phone call that ultrasound and blood work indicated they would need to do surgery if she was going to have a chance. We agreed that they could go ahead and were anxiously awaiting a phone call in another two hours.

About an hour into surgery we received a phone call indicating that Clementine's condition was critical. She had a rare intestinal problem where part of her intestine slides into another part of her intestine. They believe she was born with it and that it probably slid often, but this time got stuck. They told us we had two options: to finish the surgery which proved to be dangerous and would definitely have a long hard recovery in addition to the likelihood that she would not be a normal functioning kitten and that this would be a recurring problem for her ; the other option was to euthanize her. We felt that the best decision for both her and us was to euthanize her and the doctors seemed to agree. Such hard words to say, felt wrong and right all at the same time.

When we got off the phone the girl asked why mommy was crying. We explained to them that Clementine was going to live with Jesus. They cried big real tears and are devastated. They asked good hard questions about Clementine dying and how it doesn't seem fair. We still view Clementine as a gift from God.

The Bible instructs us to "give thanks in all circumstances" and so as a family we did; we do...
We give thanks for the doctors who worked hard on behalf of Clementine, we give thanks for the sweet memories we had with Clementine, we give thanks to have been able to provide Clementine a nice home with lots of love and attention, we give thanks that the doctors charged us less than they had originally told us, we give thanks that we were able to facilitate and guide conversation about this emotionally difficult and hard to understand concept with the girls who at 3 and 4 years old are just starting to grasp concepts such as death, soul, Heaven and Holy Spirit. We know that Christ uses these hard experiences to draw us nearer to Him, so we give thanks...even when it's hard.