Hello everyone, Otto here. It's been a very long time since I used this blog, since I switched to Facebook with my own page. But I'm writing now because I'm very sad, My sweet brother Melrose passed away last night after a very sudden illness. On the morning of Wednesday August 21 (Melbourne, Australia time) at 8:15 in the morning my daddies found Melrose stuck in his litter box and yowling; his back legs were paralysed. I came and sniffed around Melrose, and he was not well. My Daddies put him in his cat carrier and prepared to take him to the vet. Poor Melrose vomited in his cage, and then and took him away. That was the last time I ever saw him. On the way to the vet, Melrose had difficulty breathing and started to pant through his mouth. They got him to the Brunswick Central Vet Clinic:

(which was the closest vet to our house, which Melrose had never seen before) by 8:50 and put him on oxygen right away. It took him hours to stabilize, and then the doctors took some xrays and ultrasounds which showed a bloodclot in his aorta and fluid on his lungs. His back legs were still paralysed and turning blue; there was no pulse in the legs, and Melrose was unable to feel any deep pain. Although his breathing became more normal, it was clear he needed specialist 24/7 care. Around 2:40 pm my Daddies hired a taxi to transport Melrose:

Melrose was transported from the Brunswick Vet to a specialist hospital, Advanced Vetcare in Kensington:

Melrose had been there before in 2012 for bronchitis, and it was there that his heart disease was first diagnosed. Melrose had an abnormally sized atrium which our Daddies had not known anything about (after all, Melrose was been adopted at the age of 8 with no medical history attached). So Melrose was put a drug to help control this, and he was taking it every night every since; but our Daddies knew that Melrose's heart condition predisposed him to the kind of blood clots that finally hit on Wednesday. Anyway, Melrose was put into an oxygen box (actually an infant incubator) so he could stabilize overnight. That was also my first night as the only cat in the house, so I slept in bed with my Daddies.

Then Thursday 22 August was the day when everything went wrong. Although Melrose's breathing was normal in the morning and he didn't need the oxygen box, he was quite listless, and the clot was still there. He was on medication to help his heart pump properly (given his abnormal atrium). My Daddies were able to visit him around 4:30 pm, by which time Melrose was even more listless. His right leg was also numb and turning blue, which was sign that his heart had thrown another blood clot; and in fact, a third blood clot in his brain could explain his listlessness. By the evening he had fluid on his lungs again and was breathing with extreme difficulty, so he was put back into the oxygen box. My Daddies visited the hospital again just after 9:30 pm and made the difficult decision to euthanize poor Melrose, who was panting through his mouth again, unable to use three of his legs, and in great distress. Euthanasia was administered at 9:45 pm. Then my Daddies spent some time with Melrose's body in a waiting room and said to him all the special things they ever wanted to say to him.

Daddy Jimmy went back to the vet today (Friday in Australia) to arrange for Melrose's cremation, and his ashes should be ready in about 10 days' time. 

I miss my brother Melrose a lot, and I call him my brother even though we only knew each other for two and a half short years. Daddy Kevin says we had a querky relationship because I was the one who always gave Melrose lovies, and he would put up with my lickies for a little while, but he never licked me back.

And I used to walk up to him and roll on my back and egg him on to play with me, and sometimes he would and sometimes he wouldn't; but he would never initiate play with me. 

And we would lounge around together all the time, but without touching:

  

And if we weren't sitting together, we'd trade off our favorite spots with each other, like Daddy Kevin's red chair:

And of course, we always ate together:

But Melrose's greatest skill was in sleeping. Like me, he was simply adorable when he was dreaming:

And one of his favorite places to sleep was next to the heater:

And he LOVED to play with peacock feathers and chew them up and bat at them, and even lounge underneath them:

And he loved to chase the laser toy, and in the past few months he got in the habit of sitting in Daddy Jimmy's lap, which he had hardly ever done before:

And he tried Daddy Kevin's lap on occasion, too:

And whenever Pussy Galore II came to visit, Melrose was realy good and chilling out with her.

And of course, Melrose' best feature was his different colored eyes!

RIP, my sweet Woolly Bear, I keep expecting you to come round the corner. My Daddies and I will always love you.