You can't know what it means to me that you have provided financial support for Duff's medical treatments. I live alone and it is so tough to do that in New York, without someone to share the financial burdens in a city where prices rise before your eyes. I have had several cats in my life, but never before a cat with cancer. My first cat, Kudah, died of kidney failure; my next two cats, Dijie and Busby, both had diabetes, which I was unable to control, and they succumbed to it.
Bunji had a heart attack when he was only 4 years old. I feel my heart is regularly broken when I lose one of these beloved family members.
Duff was adopted from the Center for Animal Control in 1997 when he was about five months old. He has been the most remarkable, sweet, affectionate, soft, funny, intelligent cat. I have been able to walk him on a leash and for many years he went to Central Park on weekends. He is a great hunter and has 24 confirmed kills of mice. This is a photo of Duff in Central Park at 86th Street. He would stretch out on these rocks and keep an eye on the wall of an old maintenance building; this wall was made up of rocks and within the rocks lived rats, which Duff would from time to time dart across to hunt. He never got a rat, thank God, but he enjoyed the hunt.
He developed a thyroid condition more than two years ago. I have a travel phobia, so I use a house-call vet, and the first vet I tried was unable to hit upon the correct dosage of methimazole for an entire year. I eventually gave up on him and located Dr. Cindy Bressler, who has been very caring and understanding about treating Duff without terrorizing him. It was Cindy who arranged for his surgery at Animal General, and who put me in touch with Dr. Oberthaler.
Duff and his sister, Lu, are my entire family. So many people have said to me that I am foolish to spend money to save his life, but I can't bear to think that he will not be in my arms when I go to bed. He's so important to me.
A thank-you note seems such an inadequate response to this generosity. But it is extremely heartfelt, and I cannot say how much I appreciate this.
God bless you!
Judy Harris
Duff has crossed the Rainbow Bridge.