.jpg)
Adopted in 2009 from the streets around the community health clinic where Alice, my best friend and housemate, worked, Emmy/Emma (depending on whether we speak of Emmy Noether or Emma Goldman as her namesake) had a wealth of health problems, though unlike her pair-bonded tomcat friend Otis, she didn't have feline AIDS, so they were separated (Otis, as Alice reminds me in comments, is still with his FIV+ household)...we already had Domino and Niki (aka Anna Nicole) and didn't want to risk their picking up the incurable disease...but as Emma got healthier, we discovered she had one lingering problem, with bad gums (which some cats suffer from congenitally)...but not until I found her hyperventilating under the backdoor deck stairs on Monday morning, and she eventually found herself in veterinary hospital, did we learn that she apparently had a congenitally enlarged heart, and was now losing a battle with the onset of congestive heart failure. Lasix and other drugs couldn't help enough before she threw a clot this morning. Alice already misses her computer buddy and videogaming companion terribly. We still have Domino, Niki and Ninja (formerly living with my parents--all four rescues in one way or another)...but I miss our ex-street cat, too.
