This year's Thanksgiving week was especially great, because we had two special visitors from Missouri: Virginia's sister Candy and her (new) husband Ken. It was Ken's first visit to meet with his new in-laws from the West coast, and by all accounts they both had an enjoyable week of visiting, travelling and celebrating.

Well, the same goes for us too. We enjoyed their company for a small hike and dinner on Thanksgiving Eve. They are a great couple and we had a great visit.

For the Turkey Day feast, Tommy hosted at his house, and the food was just awesome. Dude - you out-did yourself this year! Thank you for putting in all the time and effort in to preparing the meal, it was truly delicious.

A November jaunt up to Mt. McGroarty with Candy & Ken.

Thanksgiving dinner - just before the feast!  Great photo of us - shot by Candy, camera by Tommy.

UPDATED (Jan 3 2011):

I created a little tribute Video to my fuzzy friend.  It's over at my live.com site HERE. (Opens in a new Window)

Topper in her last week.

Of all the things you think of that could bring a grown man to tears, you wouldn't think that a little brown fuzzy cat would be on the list. But when this mans little brown kitty had to be put to sleep, I certainly did shed a few tears. She succumbed quickly to kidney disease. It shut down her ability to eat, drink and use the litter box. At under 3 lbs, she was literaly just skin and bones on her last day.

In the pet-owners community, there is an ongoing discussion regarding knowing when "its time" to put down your pet. Topper made it easy for me. One night she looked at me in a very peculiar way while settling back into her bed. Our eyes locked and her gaze was very intense. It's a little tough to explain, but in that brief moment, I understood what needed to be done - I had received her silent message loud and clear. I helped her get settled, then went to speak to Virginia. We discussed all the angles, but in the end we both were in agreement. The next morning we made the call and the trip to the animal hospital.

But to be more upbeat, Virginia and I have great memories of Topper. She was a "peoples" cat , 100%. She loved laps, shoulders, chin scratches and a sliver of space in our bed at night. She also loved to "meow". More specifically, it was a "MEOW." Sometimes it was a "meeeeeeoooooooooowwwwwww!" Usually a plea to be picked up so she could flop down on your shoulder - she loved to be your personal neck warmer!

At just over 3 lbs and getting thinner each day, our 17 year old kitty has entered that phase of life when things begin to break down. For her, it seems that her kidneys are failing. Irreversible, ongoing treatment is the only option to slow it's progress. Ugh, it's tough to see her in this condition. "Hydration Therapy" must be applied each day: inject a catheter under her skin and let saline fluid drip in from a bag for 5 minutes. As you can imagine, this is a whopping adjustment to both humans and cats alike.

Update: As the days went on during her hydration therapy, we could see that she was not responding the way the vet had described. In her little bed she was looking more thin each day - and evermore lethargic. Her once piercing "meow" were now barely above her breath. Yet she still had those squinty eyes when entering the room - she was happy to see you. After another consultation with the vet, we now had two options. The first was to take her in for a week's stay, getting an IV with fluids and nutrients. The idea was to get her to the point where her appetite would come back, yet the vet could not guarantee that she would respond that way.

Photo: Topper in better days lounging in the front yard.