Seven passed away on Oct. 29, 2007

She had cancer - lymphoma. She fought valliantly.

Seven was our second cat. She got her name from the park where my husband found her: "Seven Oaks Park". He happened to see this thin, orange cat scrounging around the trash cans. Once again it was a cold month, March 1999, and not wanting to leave her in the park, he picked her up and brought her home. After a trip to the vet, they said she was probably about 5-6 years old, judging by her teeth. Seven had an eye injury which discolored her right eye. We have no idea how much she can see out of that eye, but her other eye is good and she navigates just fine. We also found she was probably used to being in a house. When we brought her home, one of the first things she did was jump on the bed. I told my husband that she had more than likely been in a house before. Seven also tried to open the cabinets with her paw, another sign that she may have been accustomed to a home. We were glad to have Seven as we figured she would be a good playmate for Anna. Well, to make a long story short, it took about 3 months for them to get along! They don't hiss at each other much anymore, but they do bat at each other occasionally. And they do chase each other around the house. So I guess you could say they get along!
 
 

In 2005, my husband and I took Seven in for her annual checkup at the vet. The vet did all the routine checks, but when she listened to Seven's heart, she thought she heard a heart murmur. The vet said she wanted to do some X-rays to check on this further. We left Seven at the vet and was told to come back and get her that afternoon. Later that day when we arrived at the vet, she wanted to show us the X-rays and talk to us. Seven indeed had a slight heart murmur, but when my husband and I looked at the film, we noticed some small dots scattered around the film. Thinking the film was defective, we mentioned that to the vet. To our horror, the vet told us that the dots on the film were actually small pellets of buckshot that Seven had in her body!! Before we found her as a stray, someone had shot her with buckshot! I counted 25 pellets in her body, but I'm sure there are more. Needless to say, we were very upset! We had never known until now what had happened to her because we had never had any reason for Seven to be X-rayed before. Well, I almost started crying and asked the vet if the buckshot could be removed. She said that it would be more traumatic for Seven to remove the pellets since they were scattered so much over her body. She said the pellets were probably just under the skin and had not penetrated any organs. Seven's right eye has always been bad, her iris has always been discolored, and my husband and I always thought she had been in a cat fight before we found her and her eye had been damaged. We now realized that Seven's bad eye was due to a pellet or pellets going into it. It's a wonder that her eye wasn't put out. I can't imagine the pain she must have felt when those pellets went into her. I just know that she's now so glad to be in a loving, warm home.