Setting out

Believe it or not, this is a picture of a healthy cat!

Six weeks before our planned departure, I took Neige to the vet for a routine checkup. The checkup revealed an ominous lump on her leg, which proved to be feline vaccine-associated sarcoma. It turns out that when you get your cats vaccinated, there is a roughly 1 in 1000 chance that they'll develop this cancer, which is nasty, aggressive, and always fatal within a short time if not treated! What a fitting topic this feels like for Halloween day (today)! This aggressive cancer is treated with aggressive surgery: in Neige's case, amputation of her left rear leg! At first, that felt to me barely better than a death sentence. Since then, I've learned that tripod cats can live very satisfactory, normal lives, especially indoor cats. It's now three weeks since the surgery, and Neige is now running, jumping, climbing stairs, and already doing most things she'd done with four legs! She doesn't seem distressed about the change. Cats are amazing in their ability to live in the moment. Best of all, the post-operation pathology report showed that she's now tumor free! So, amazingly, Jorge and I are setting out for South America on schedule! We're now in Berkeley, waiting to go to SFO early tomorrow morning. When we left Neige, she was running around the house chasing after little balls of crumped-up foil!