We Are Written in the Stars - Kaylor

10. Through Our Paces

Soon after Taylor turned nineteen, Dee stopped eating.

The first day, she thought nothing of it. But after two days she began to worry. For all her sassy meowing and tendency to sleep on Taylor's face, it was easy to forget that Dee was thirteen years old.

She spent that day sitting by the food bowl, coaxing Dee as best she could to eat at least a mouthful. But her beloved cat simply lay in her lap, as despondent as Taylor had ever seen her.

After three days with no change, she and Andrea rushed to the vet, hoping for good news that in her heart Taylor knew wouldn't come.

Within an hour the vet nurse uttered two words that broke Taylor's heart.

Feline Lymphoma. A kind of cancer found in the white blood cells.

Treatment was possible, if a little more hit and miss because of Dee's old age. But both Taylor and her mother were determined to do what was best for their cat.

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Taylor almost left songwriting entirely over those next months, even though her second album Fearless had been released for a while.

Most of her time was spent cuddling up with Dee, wherever the cat wanted. It seemed her once boisterous pet was content to spend her time in Taylor's lap, no energy to do much else.

Dee struggled on for a while, and despite the vet's expectations, she began to improve, if only a little.

But nothing was the same as before. Taylor could hear it in Dee's groan whenever she lay down, joints rattling. Her hair began to fall out in clumps. She no longer had the strength to jump up to Taylor's bed, and Taylor would have to lift her up every night to go to sleep.

Despite the barrage of medication and vet appointments, Dee never failed to purr whenever Taylor showed her the slightest bit of affection, just as she always had.

One night, after Taylor had curled up in bed, she moved Dee so she was lying atop her stomach, her cat's favourite spot to nap. Scratching her behind the ears, Taylor took a deep breath, tears pricking her eyes.

"You'd let me know, right Dee? You'd let me know when you've had enough?" She whispered.

Her cat only purred in response.

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When Taylor woke up the next day, Dee felt cold.

Within fifteen minutes, they were at the vet again, Taylor slumped anxiously in a chair, Andrea rubbing her back comfortingly.

When the vet nurse finally approached them, a grim expression on her face, Taylor knew the day she had been dreading had arrived.

Dee had grown a huge mass in her stomach, stopping her digestion. Surgery was possible, but the vet couldn't guarantee Dee would survive the operation, nor would it prevent the cancer from spreading.

Taylor made the decision that had plagued her ever since her cat's diagnosis. Dee didn't deserve to suffer anymore.

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"I'll give you two a few minutes alone," the vet said as she closed the door.

With a shaky sigh, Taylor sat beside the table where Dee lay, an IV tube in her leg to receive the injection.

Taylor scratched her behind the ears, in the way that always elicited a purr. But now Dee just closed her eyes, tummy rising and falling softly.

"Well Dee, I guess this is it huh?" Taylor's voice broke as she nodded to herself. "Don't worry, it's not going to hurt at all. It'll just be like falling asleep."