Toute's last day...
Toute Sweet is one of our Birman cats. She was a blue point female Birman - with a wonderful personality - nearly eight years old. She was a unique cat. Loved to play. She also just loved to be with you and wanted all of your attention.

Toute was a cancer surviver. She had a ring of cancer develop around her large intestine a little over two years ago. It cost a bundle to find it and get fixed. All of the diagnosis afterwards were that she wouldn't live beyond six months. She lived over two years beyond her bout with cancer. Funny thing is that I don't think she minded at all. The cancer stopped her from eating for a while - so she lost a lot of weight and we couldn't find out why. An X-ray didn't help. Only by operating and finding it and removing it did she get better. She had a feeding tube inserted in the side of her neck so that we could tube feed her. She was such a smart cat that she figured out that when we sat down with the food for her that she was about to be fed. So she would be waiting for us and lean so that tube feeding her was really easy. She learned this so well that when the tube was removed then she still waited for us to feed her with it - for a week or two after the tube was removed. We all whine and complain about a lot of stuff. Toute was always a trooper who just loved being with us everyday.

Toute would lay down at the top of the steps so that you would follow her down the steps where she would wait at the bottom until you got there. Then she would go across the room to where she wanted you to sit and pat her for a while.

Toute was one of our cats that would stand up to the dogs and stop them in their tracks. She figured out that laying down on her back gave her a great way to stop them - think about it, she has nothing but claws up - no way the dogs could get her to move.

Toute always came to me to purr up a storm. She did somethings that we've never been able to figure out - like clawing at a mirror next to the bed (she did this for years) or the oven. We guessed that she saw herself and wanted to get to the cat on the other side. But that can't explain it. She pounded on the mirror in our bedroom nearly every night. She knew it was a way to get attention right after the lights went out in the bedroom.

Toute was a insistent lap cat. She would come up onto my lap and purr and happy paw and scratch. She loved to be loved. Another thing was that during these lap purr-fests shen would lean her head into me - head bumps like crazy. Usually she would do at least one lick of my nose. If she was really in an attention getting mood then there would be more nose licks - until she'd bite my nose.

Toute would always choose who she was going to love. She looked great for cat shows... but she really disliked judges. The funny thing was that she would ham it up for the spectators - so they always loved seeing her at a cat show.

Toute was a gift from God. Today we had no choice but to send her back home. We don't know what is causing her to loose a lot of weight. This time we can't fix the problem. Even worse is that we can't wait any longer. So, today we will be taking her to the vet to send her back home to heaven.

I've always believed that animals that you love, that learn about love - they will be waiting for us in heaven. I don't know if it's factually true - Bible schollars tell me that they can't find the definititive passage in the Bible. I know that there are houses there - Elijah was taken up with a chariot of fire with horses.

I do know that God is love. I know that Toute was really a loving cat who showed love where she could.

The Bible is really clear on one thing for people - if you accept Christ is the son of God and you believe in your heart that He died for you sins and was raised to life again - then you will be in heaven when you die. My faith is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Animals can't know this. I really believe she couldn't have known how to love unless the knowledge came from God. I believe in my heart that she'll be in heaven. Will you be there?
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