Simon is gone. He died about 1:15 am this morning (the 18th). He was suffering something sudden and debilitating; based on blood tests the doctor said it was almost certainly cancer. He was quite frail already and we didn’t want to put him through any surgery, chemo, etc. Other than being hungry and a little confused, and having doctors poking at him, we don’t believe he was in pain or suffering, but that it was likely to go that direction given much longer.

There’s more to tell but it can be told later. Thank you to all of you who wrote with love and support, including esmerel, thistle_chaser, tersa, agrimony, da_zhuang, ciannait, demariana, waterowl, peragrine, aelfsciene, misty_shadows, and to C and D for hanging with us while we awaited news.

According to the emergency vet, Simon either has intestinal cancer or a (less likely but more hopeful) a massive infection of some kind. We will know more after seeing the regular vet for an ultrasound tomorrow. He’s lost a lot of weight quickly and is pretty much skin and bones. He had been having diarrhea and vomiting for a week or so, though we attributed it to Sophie at first.

Please send positive thoughts for our littlest one.