There’s more to Buster’s story (shared here yesterday). And it’s sad.
Buster was a light colored cat. He enjoyed baking in the sun, as most cats do. In his case, though, it turned out to be a dangerous undertaking.
When Buster was about 9 years old, he developed a sore on one ear, where his fur was very sparse.
When we had it examined, it turned out to be skin cancer. So our vet removed it, and Buster ended up with a small hole punched out of his ear where that cancerous spot had been. It was a nice, clean hole, as if with a paper punch.
The cancer didn’t reappear on his ear, and we thought it had been defeated.
But, sadly, that wasn’t the case.
It reappeared, this time on his forehead, as I recall it was above his right eye. As soon as it reappeared, our vet removed it. But it returned, and kept growing bigger. To make matters worse, it was in a place where he could scratch at it. And he did.
The spot grew, and was eventually at least the size of a nickel, perhaps even a quarter. It seemed huge, although I know it really wasn’t.
We were sent home with one of those dreaded plastic cones to prevent him from scratching the spot.
That might have worked if the spot showed signs of healing over. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
Eventually, we had to face the fact that the alternatives weren’t good. We could force him to live with the cone, or let him scratch himself bloody. At that point, we made his last vet visit and said goodbye.
In any case, the lesson for us was that light colored cats, like light skinned people, should limit their exposure to the sun.
A painful lesson learn too late.
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Dear Ian,
You are a saint for trying to save every animal that walks into your life.
We know our limits, although it’s very hard. When we lived in Kaaawa, we eventually realized that we couldn’t keep every rescued kitten. We then got pretty good at placing kittens. And Romeo was the last cat we adopted as an adult, at least until our current crop, all adopted from a cat colony at the top of Aiea Heights. All have turned out to be wonderful cats, although two of the three revert to their wary outside ways whenever someone else comes into the house.
Rest in Peace, Buster.
If the cat has no pigmentation on the nose, it can get nose cancer. Same with the ears and head. If there’s no pigmentation or dark fur protecting the skin, cancer may likely appear.