You might expect a cat named Lilac to be a pastel sort of girl, a mint julep-sippin’ helpless type who frequently sighs, “Well, I never!”, and can scarcely carry her own purse.

But our Lilac is a flower with a stronger fragrance - and, in the days to come, she’ll need all the strength, love and prayer she can get to bloom on.

Lilac is that rare Tabby’s Place cat who came to us with a long history of being beloved. There were no cold years in the shelter system for our flower; she was the cherished cat-child of a wonderful woman for most of her 15 years. Mrs. Lilac loved her girl enough to reach beyond earthly life, providing for Lilac’s journey to Tabby’s Place via the Guardian Angel Program.

From the day of her arrival this summer, Lilac has been a case study in a Truly True Truth: When you’re well-loved, it shows. Our calico senior missed her momma, no doubt, but she was well-versed in affection. That education has served her well and made her the high princess of cuddles in our very own Little Old Ladies’ Room, Adoption Room #3.

Other than tying with Mittens and Franny for the title of Oldest Current Tabby’s Place Cat, Lilac came to us with no Special Needs…or so it seemed. Alas, the sturdy calico with strong features and stronger sweetness was hiding a horrible secret.

No, no, no, she hadn’t partied with Charlie Sheen or broken up Billy Ray Cyrus’ marriage - Lilac’s secret was much sadder than that. (Besides, this blossom is a lady in every sense of the word.)

Earlier this week, that secret came out - literally - in the Tabby’s Place surgical suite. And that secret was one ugly sucker. It should have been enough for it to bear the mean, nasty title of “mammary cancer”…but Lilac’s unwanted invader had to stretch its sleazy, slimy tentacles into her innocent lymph nodes, too. Dr. C. took wide margins from the surrounding area when she excised Lilac’s secret…but the biopsy report was anything but rosy. Lilac’s cancer blurred and smudged beyond the margins, into that lymph node, into the realm of worry and woe and a “guarded prognosis.” (Guards are good in basketball and Fort Knox. “Guarded,” on the other hand, has become a word I hate with a violent purple passion when it comes to cat diagnoses.)

But the good news - or at least the hopeful news - is strong, and sweet, and anything but pastel.

First of all, Lilac is a warrior. You might not know it to look at her, although there is something very sturdy and robust, almost Xena-like, about our girl. This old calico has already seen enough of earthly existence to know it isn’t all hee-hee/ha-ha - and yet she still chooses to love life. She may have lost her human momma, the home she once knew, and, now part of her mammary chain as well as a lymph node, but Lilac will not lose a moment to self-pity or despair. Not when there are humans to rub and treats to munch and sunshine to lap up like melted ice cream. She’s barely out of major surgery, and already Lilac is back in her suite, meowing brightly to circle visitors, nose-to-noseing with her fellow calico Cali, milking life for all its sweetness. If Adoption Room #3 is Tabby’s Place’s answer to The Golden Girls, Lilac is our Dorothy, the whip-smart, suffer-no-fools but leave-no-one-unloved character incarnated by Bea Arthur. Lilac is a warrior.

Secondly, Lilac will have quite an arsenal at her disposal against this no-longer-secret invader. She’ll be headed to an oncologist in the next week or so, and we’ll get the battle plan in action. If she needs surgery and she’s strong enough to handle it - and I think we’ve only begun to see her strength - Lilac will get surgery. If it’s chemo that will clobber the invader, bring on the chemo. Heck, if surrounding Lilac with 500 stuffed animals and letting her watch Goonies on a continuous loop would do the trick, bring it on. (Actually, if that’s the cure, I volunteer to be Lilac’s 24-hour nursemaid. :-))

She will get what she needs. She will be adored.

And, I pray with my might, she will blow that “guarded prognosis” farther than some Coke-soaked Mentos.

Thank you for loving and praying for Lilac with us, Felis Catus family.

Tags: lilac

---