Mary #59

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59

“I really like her” Mary said when the doctor left.

“Isn’t she wonderful?  She has such a way with animals.  Until we found Ruth, when we took our dog to the vet, they would just put him up on the table and examine him, not really paying that much attention to him.”

“I know.”

“Sorry about that” the doctor said as she came back into the office.  “Now about Lulu, I’m sorry to say with everything that’s happening with her I think she might have cancer.  I can’t say for sure unless I would get a biopsy.”

“I was afraid of that” as the tears welled up in Mary’s eyes.

“What are the chances of her surviving if she does have cancer” Mary asked.

“Not too good in my opinion.  For one thing to treat her would be very, very expensive.  With how old she is, even if we did it I don’t know if she could survive it.”

“Oh” Mary said.

“Let me tell you what other people have done when their animals have been faced with this.  Some people don’t do anything.  They put the animal to sleep right away.  Some people get the biopsy done and then if it’s malignant they put the animal down.  Some people find out its cancer and they treat it. 

Some people find out its cancer and they don’t treat it but they put the animal on palliative care and hospice.”

“Wow, I didn’t know they have hospice for animals” Elizabeth said.

“Not everywhere do they have it.”

“I’m not sure what I want to do.  I do know I would like to have the biopsy done.  How about we start with that first and then go from there.”

“I have time to do the biopsy later today.  Normally, I wouldn’t keep the cat overnight but because of Lulu’s age I would want to keep her overnight to make sure she recovers from the anesthesia.  You can pick her up in the morning.”

“Okay, how long will it be before we find out?”

“A few days, I’ll call you with the results.  Depending what we find out, you can figure out what you want to do.”

Mary and Elizabeth got up and went to the table and gave Lulu a hug and a kiss and left.

It was very quiet on the drive home until just as they were turning into the driveway Elizabeth said 

“I’m going to be getting hospice?

“What did you say?”

“Whenever my treatments stop working or if I think I want to stop them, I’m going to get hospice.  I’ve thought about it ever since I found out.”

“Elizabeth” Mary said with tears coming down her face said “I don’t want to seem mean here but I can hardly think about put Lulu on hospice and I certainly can’t wrap my brain about you being on it.  Can we not talk about this now?”

“Okay" she said as they got to the farm.

“Look I’m going to go for a walk in the woods” and she got out of the car. 

“Okay, be careful” and Elizabeth watched for a while as Mary walked through the field to the woods.  She noticed Mary had left her phone.  She decided she would call Eli and tell him.

Mary walked to her favorite rock and sat down looking at the water.  She thought to herself, she knew this was coming.  She knew she was just not destined to be happy very long.  Something always happened.  Even though she was worried about Elizabeth she was getting treatments and she knew she would be all right, at least for a while.  Now Lulu, it was most likely close to the end of her life.

She thought if she was still in New York, she wouldn’t even know about these terrible things.  That would be just fine with her.  But then she wouldn’t have met Eli.  She said out loud “I’ll probably screw that up.  That’s just the way it is with me.”

“What are you going to screw up” and when she turned around Eli was standing there with his arms opened.

She ran to him in tears.  He held her for the longest time. 

Mary pulled away and asked “What are you doing here?”

“Elizabeth called me and told me about Lulu.  I’m sorry” and she grabbed him and hung on for dear life.  

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