We adopted Iris from the Souris Valley Humane Society on September 6, 2003. On September 24th, at 4 months old, she was diagnosed with feline diabetes. We found the board a few days later and on October 9, Ultralente.

Iris's numbers weren't high at first, rarely hitting 300. For a few months she was happy and healthy with insulin treatment. We began to have some trouble with regulating her numbers and tried diluting and eventually BCP PZI. That experiment soon failed and it was back to Ultralente.

We treated a persistant bladder infection and Iris had many blood tests and urinalysis's to rule out hyperthyroidism, for one. We couldn't find anything.

In July 2003, my husband and I went to Alaska for 2 weeks to visit his family. Iris and our civvie, Misty, stayed with my parents, whom Misty used to live with and Iris was familiar with and fond of. She immediately stopped eating or responding to anything. My mother was afraid she was going to die. Her appetite was stimulated by cat milk, which unfortunately raised her glucose to outrageous heights, for a cat who rarely had hit 300 previously.

We came home and Iris began to feel a little better. Her appetite returned, but her glucose levels never came down to where they were. She was often lethargic (ketone free) and off balance.

For awhile, we'd been noticing that her belly was starting to grow. We thought it was malnourishment but it grew increasingly worse when we returned. Her fur was falling off and her skin was thinning out - you could see her veins running through clearly. Her nose also lost fur and scabbed over. The scab eventually fell off, but the fur never grew back.

When I listed her symptoms, Deanie (and Boo) suggested Cushing's disease. I did some research and found that her symptoms were too close to be coincidence. I took a binder full of information to the vet and he completely agreed with me. Both of our research found that the odds for cats with Cushing's aren't wonderful. In addition, Iris had never been strong.

At first, I was going to go ahead and get additional tests done to prove that it was Cushing's, but I waited too long - afraid of what I'd find out, I think - and then the other vet wanted to do a test that was for dogs, rather than cats - since it was one that she was familiar with.

Iris was growing sicker. In addition, my husband and I are military and will be moving to Turkey in January. There would not be enough time to help her, even if it would work, which I highly doubted. She was too weak to go to Turkey with us and July had proven that I could never leave her with someone else, as she nearly died the first time.

On October 6, 2004, just past her first anniversary with feline diabetes, she stopped responding to us. I would feed her and she'd eat less than half. She would lay down next to her bowl and pee all over herself (although she'd been peeing on herself for months at that point).

She wouldn't eat or drink, or even respond more than an occasional blinking of her eyes. She spent the night of October 7th laying next to my bed, stationary the whole night. She'd had a bath and blow dry that night from my husband, but was sticky when I woke up at one of the many times during the night, so she must have peed somewhere.

We got up the next day, October 8, and laid her on the bed while we got ready. She had an appointment at 9 am. She wasn't moving at all, but was slightly purring if you placed your head on her chest. I brought her downstairs and wrapped her in Deanie's pink and cream blanket and set her on the coffee table. She didn't move.

We got to the vet and there was no question as to what we were going to have to do. We'd been thinking about it for a few days, but it was now there was no question. It took less than 60 seconds. I was already crying, whispering "Mama loves you, baby" over and over again. When the needle went in, Iris flinched a little and my husband broke down, thinking she was in pain. He hugged us both as Iris's heart slowed and stopped. The vet checked her heart and then told us he was sorry and to take as long as we needed as he backed out of the room.

We stayed with Iris for awhile, but Misty was waiting for us in the truck, as we were supposed to be going to my parents' for the weekend. We had to get back out to her, so I made sure Iris was wrapped in her blanket and that the blanket would stay with her. We left and drove to my parents' house.

It has been two days and we still haven't been home. I am dreading it, as I know there will be memories of Iris everywhere. The first day was bad, but the second and third are much, much worse. It is sinking in that she's gone. I miss my angel.

Mama loves you, baby.