This is something that no pet owner wants to write about. Yesterday our cat Ginny passed away. She was 12 years old, and had been sick for a few months.
I wouldn’t normally write about this in this type of blog, but our team at the Veterinary Care and Specialty Group (VCSG) in Chattanooga was wonderful, and they deserve recognition. If you’re in the Chattanooga area, you can find more information about them at www.vcsgvets.com.
Our vet was Amy Holford and our nurse was Evelyn Greter. VCSG is a 24 hour emergency care office, and while we didn’t need them during overnight hours, they were available for us during weekends, and any time during the week, which was extremely helpful.
Over the months, we became familiar faces and voices to the team at VCSG, and Amy and Evelyn became familiar to us, too.
We spoke to Evelyn the most, and she was always helpful. Each time we called (about once a week) we had a list of questions and she would give us advice.
We tried many things to help Ginny out, but it was touch and go the entire time. She would seem better for a week, but then we would run into another issue.
Something that was important to us was that they tried to find cost effective options for us. We had to give Ginny steroid and B-12 injections, and they gave us websites where to order in bulk, to save the most money.
Her health declined in the last two days, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Amy and Evelyn were concerned enough for Ginny that they asked us to bring her in during their lunch break.
Ginny passed away at VCSG, in their care.
Amy kneeled down to my level — I was sitting in a chair — and looked directly in my eyes and said, “I want you to know that you did everything you possibly could.” That was important to hear.
We were given all the time we wanted and needed to say good bye to Ginny. Afterward, they gave us an impression of her pawprints set in foam, inside a keepsake case. In addition, they included some of her fur in the corner of the case. Ginny was a calico, mostly white, but with orange and black spots. She had two big black spots on her back. The cut of fur that they included was one of her spots, and it may sound silly, but I was touched that they picked that area to put inside the case.
Going forward, I hope to bring our other two cats to them, since we have established a good relationship with VCSG. We have extra cans of wet food (one of the things we tried for Ginny was a new diet) and we will donate those to them.
If you are reading this and have pets, give them extra loving today. I will be doing the same with our other two cats, Sabrina and Chessie.