Goodbye Cusca

We arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday 21st, to visit our daughter Karina and son-in-law who have been living  here for just over 1 year.

A few weeks ago, Karina had mentioned her Cat "Cusca" had been sick, not eating, but after a course of antibiotics she was a little better. 
When we arrived she had stopped eating again- so on Monday 23rd, my daughter took Cusca to the vet again and he said she had an infection as per the blood tests but he couldn't say exactly what was wrong, so he suggested a scan.

The scan was done on Tuesday 24th and the news wasn't good - she has the wet version of Feline Infectious Peritonitis, and the vet said, she could last a few days or months, but if she stopped eating altogether it would be better to euthanize her. 
The vets in Amsterdam will do a house call to euthanize the pets, so as to make it less stressful for the pets and owners, so my daughter bravely made the decision to have Cusca euthanized this Friday. Her belly is swollen with fluids and her lungs also have fluid, she has difficulty walking, no longer playful and she's hardly eating...

Cusca - or "snoop" in English, was the name given to this small kitten that followed my daughter home 16 years ago. She used to put her nose everywhere, super curious, hence the name "Cusca". She's very clever, feisty,  loves company and was always the tiniest of all the cats we had, with a pixie face and long ears.

Eight years ago when we moved from Portugal to Australia, Cusca stayed with our daughter in Lisbon. A few months later we got news that Cusca had fallen from an open window on the second floor. Apart from a few broken teeth she had a broken leg too. The vet plastered the leg,  but when she went to have the plaster removed a few weeks later the tissue had rotten away and she had to have that hind leg amputated.
She quickly learned to walk and even run on 3 legs. Last night we were reminiscing about Cusca, and my daughter was recounting how a few years ago when she and her partner were living in Nangis (France) and Cusca had unwanted cat visitors in her garden she would scare them off by running after them faster on her 3 legs than the others on 4 legs!

  
She's a well travelled cat, many people would be jealous - she first lived in the country village where we lived in the center of Portugal, then in Lisbon, then moved to France - where she first lived in Nangis, then Paris, then Marseille, and for the last year in Amsterdam.

Since we arrived, Cusca has taken to sleeping snuggled up to either my husband or I, with her head resting on our arms purring away contently. She might still remember us, although the last time she saw me was 2 and a half years ago and the last time she saw my husband was 8 years ago. 
But apparently when my daughter has other visitors Cusca never goes to sleep with them, so I presume she's showing how happy she is to see us again.
She is crazy about Karina, following her about the house lucky a puppy, and whenever we talked on skype, Cusca would be draped over Karina's neck and shoulders. Pity I don't have a photo of that...

We had planned to go to Braunschweig in Germany with Karina, today and tomorrow,  to show her where we once lived and where she was born, but in view of the circumstances we decided it would be better to spend these last few days with Cusca giving her some extra cuddles.

She will be missed, and Karina and I have already shed quite a few tears and she's not gone yet - 16 years in our lives, 8 of them with my daughter.

I'm taking it hard once again, as "Baby" was put to sleep just over 2 weeks ago, and "Mommy" just under a year ago, so a tough year for our furry family. 
I'm missing my babies back home too.