Nini Love

Two days ago I brought my beautiful senior (15 year old) cat Nini home from rear leg amputation surgery. I came downstairs one night to find her sitting on the ground, unable to walk. I had left her sitting on the bed completely normal only a couple hours earlier. I brought her to an emergency clinic, and was told she had a spiral fracture in her femur. 

She spent the night in the hospital and the next day we got the radiology results back. She had an anomaly on her femur about 1 cm in size that the fracture had originated from. The doctor said this was indicative of a bone tumor, which weakened the bone and caused the leg to break.

Unfortunately it would be a week or two before we could get results of a biopsy confirming that it was cancer. I was told the two options were to set the fracture or amputate the leg. In the meantime, they would do an abdominal ultrasound and chest X-ray to see if there were tumors elsewhere in her body.


     Nini in the garden a few years ago

I spent the next few hours alternating between crying my eyes out, researching what the best option would be, and quietly meditating, trying to cut through the sadness, fear and anxiety. I had to decide whether to set the fracture or amputate Nini’s leg. If we set the fracture and then find out in a week she has cancer, her leg will need to be amputated anyway, and she will have to go through another intense painful surgery. But if I decide to amputate her leg now, and she doesn’t have cancer then I amputated her leg unnecessarily. It was an extremely difficult decision to make without having all the information.

Nini and her sister relaxing on the bed a few months ago

Her ultrasound and x-ray showed no signs of tumors elsewhere in her body. After having a really good conversation with the doctor, my own research and my gut feeling, we decided to amputate the leg. Although we didn’t have complete information, I felt like most signs pointed to cancer. And I was really worried about Nini going through two surgeries in less than two weeks if she ends up having cancer. 

Nini is my best friend and soul mate. I have never had and probably will never have another connection with anybody, cat, human or otherwise like the one I have with Nini. I love her dearly and plan to do all I can to make sure she has a happy, healthy life.