Our beloved Goshen - Rest in Peace

Goshen laughing, one week before she passed away

We have unexpectedly lost our precious Goshen. I have been crying comfortless for days and it is not until now that I can gather myself to write about it. Saturday morning she was happy as usual and we had planned to go and visit Yoram's mother in Karmiel. For some reason, I did not feel like going, and Yoram left alone with the kids just before lunch. I cannot say if that was intuition or destiny, or just pure coincidence, but I am so happy that I stayed at home, because right after they had left I noticed that Goshen was acting strangely. She went out and laid alone in the garden and I went out and called her up on the porch, and then I noticed that she was wobbling and could not stand up properly. I immediately checked her and noticed that her gums were completely pale and that she was breathing heavily. She did not even want to eat a chicken heart, but she did drink some water. I called Yoram and explained the situation and they decided to come home earlier than planned. I feared some kind of poisoning, but could not figure out what that could be.

When Yoram came home she was not any better and we tried to reach our vet, but he was off duty and he recommended us to go to a clinic in Haifa that backs him up when he is gone. We had to carry out a very weak Goshen to the car and we drove there. The young vet on duty started to examine her and took blood samples, but the blood initially seemed OK. Her tummy was not hard or swollen either, so we could not explain her shock state. Not until she examined her tummy with ultrasound, she could see something suspicious on her spleen, some liquid accumulation. We also took a few x-ray shoots on her, which confirmed the same. By now, a new blood sample revealed that she was actually loosing blood, and the accumulation in her tummy was just that, a big hemorrhage. The young vet called in the head vet of the clinic, who explained the condition and prognosis. He said that there was a 70% risk that the hemorrhage was caused by a tumor on the spleen. This type of cancer is called Hemangiosarcoma and it is very common on some larger breeds, and German Shepherd in particular. It is a blood-fed type of tumor that rarely is discovered until it suddenly bursts and causes a sudden death from inner bleeding. What he could have done was to open her and remove the spleen and send it to biopsy, but since Hemangiosarcoma is a malign type of cancer, and also very metastatic, the risk that it had already spread to other tissues was very high. Besides that, Goshen was already too anemic to safely be put under general anesthesia, so although it was excruciatingly painful, we understood that we had reached the end of her life.

I have never seen Yoram cry before, but now he broke down like a child, and so did I. Gal was also with us, and at first I don't think that he understood the reality in what was going on, but when he did he cried as well. I was sitting face to face with Goshen when she got the sedative and the anesthetic that put her to sleep and I can swear that I saw peace in her eyes, acceptance and contentment. She was OK with passing on and satisfied with her life. No fear or stress, or signs of disagreement. Although I found it sad that this did not happen with our regular vet, who has known Goshen all her life, I am also grateful that it was on a Saturday and we were home and could take care of her. I cannot even begin to imagine how it would have felt to come home from work to a dead dog. Now she had company during her last day in life.

We put Goshen back in the car and drove home. Yoram went to the neighbor and borrowed some shovels and I went in and took Barak out. He smelled me differently already in the house and when I opened the backdoor to the car, he saw Goshen and smelled her. He jumped up into the car and sat down on her, just as if he was claiming her for the last time. Then he jumped back out and looked away as if that was enough. We put him back in the house and drove out into the fields to a spot that Yoram had thought of as suitable.

Goshen's last resting place

We laid her down in front of two small trees that are standing solely on a small hilltop, viewing out over the Jezreel valley. We covered her with rocks to prevent the jackals from digging her up and we put some flowers. I opened a bottle of wine and we toasted her and thanked her for our time together, and then we all went home to a painfully empty house. Everybody cried themselves to sleep and the kids were calling her name in their sleep all night...

Goshen's wonderful view over the valley

Welcome Karma!

Karma
A petite semi-long haired tortoiseshell tabby girl

I knew somewhere deep down that our family would not be complete without a cat, but with two notorious cat-chasers in the family the cat needed to be made of a special material, brave, but cautious and smart. Destiny would bring us that sooner or later, was my belief, and Sunday evening she arrived.

The dogs were inside and the cat was meowing in the backyard so we went out and talked to her and gave her some food. She seemed very confident, so we took Goshen out first, since she is the easiest one. She was just sitting still watching the cat, however intensely, and since the cat did not mind the dog, Yoram took Barak out as well, but on a leash. He was very excited, but had no choice but to sit still.

Suddenly the cat jumped off, and both dogs tried to charge after her. Goshen stopped on commando, and Barak was hanging safely on his collar. We took the dogs inside and within minutes the cat was back. We said goodnight for the night. In the morning she was outside and she got some breakfast. In the afternoon I bought a muzzle for Barak on the way home, since I knew that he would nip her if he got the chance. He had it on for a while when we spent time together on the porch. He quieted down so after a while, so I took it off. I wanted him to smell her so I let him stretch his nose over my lap, and suddenly, without any notice, he just took her foot in his mouth! I almost panicked, bent his mouth up and disciplined him harshly. The most strange thing is that the cat only meowed and did not seem to care more than that. It did not scare her, and she did not take off. Obviously it did not even hurt. It is possible that he did not bite her hard, but still fought me to not let go.

In the evening Yoram came home and he just let her into the house, and she did not hesitate. I was very nervous over Barak, but Yoram assured me that he would not do her anything when we all watched over it. He did not. I guess that I just did not trust him, and that energy probably affected the whole situation. From that moment, indoor coexistence was no problem.

What still is an issue is outdoors. Whenever the cat wants to leave the porch and go out in the garden, the dogs prey drive is involuntary, at least in Barak. Goshen has understood to let her be, but Barak just cannot control himself, so there we need to supervise thoroughly. And of course, we never leave them alone together anywhere just yet.

Comfortable on the running washing machine

Bottom line is, that she is a brave little cat, our Karma. She walks between the legs on the dogs in the kitchen, and if they get too close, they get a paw on the nose. She stretches out purring on the bed, while the dogs keep intense attention to her. It sure complicates our lives quite a bit, since we need to be more alert, and we cannot just open the back door anymore and just let the dogs out without checking if she is there. Sometimes, Barak is simply leashed in the yard, but sometimes not. Depends on how much effort we can spend. I am working with a lot of positive reinforcement, by rewarding Barak when he is calm around the cat, but if he charges after her, he will get punished, because that is a nono!

The cat has learned exactly how to navigate around our home. She knows how to pass the dogs to get out of the back yard, and when she wants to get back inside, she meows on the front door. In the evening she comes inside, during dinner and the evening chores, and then we spend some time with her in bed before we let her out for the night. Even if all the animals learn to get along, I think that she will stay out during the nights. After all, cats are nocturnal animals. Tomorrow we will take her to the vet to get her spayed. I guess that we are her family now. Since you cannot own a cat. A dog has owners, while a cat has personnel. We will cherish every day that she chooses to keep us.