My sweet "Allie cat"...

It breaks my heart to announce that we put our sweet kitty to sleep on Friday evening. She had been having "potty problems" for a month now and despite the very best efforts of our veterinarian, the problem could not be diagnosed and thus could not be cured. Now I try to hide my tears when Lauren looks at me with her hands outstretched in question and asks "Kitty?". I'm having a hard time with this for a few reasons. Allie was my first "baby", as I got her back when I was in college. She's been my kitty for almost 10 years. She was known for having quite the crabby attitude and I was afraid we'd have to get rid of her when Lauren was born. However, much to the surprise of everyone, Allie was wonderful with Lauren. She let her crawl on her and pet her and never lashed out at her like she tended to with everyone else. It's as if she KNEW she had to be gentle with Lauren. The other reason I'm having a hard time with her death is because we didn't get a diagnosis. We did three different urinalyses, took x-rays and did blood tests but nothing was revealed. The vet was left suspecting that Allie may have had a tumor in her bladder that wasn't detected on the x-ray. My poor kitty :(Rest in peace, Allie cat. We'll miss you.
Love,
M, C & L