Survivor no matter what

Three Paw had her second round of chemo this week. This time she was lavished with attention by Alberto and another lovely vet trainee. I overheard Alberto explaining to this trainee in Italian how Three Paw was a seven year survivor of cancer and you should have seen the look of respect in the man's face. It was a timely reminder to me that she is a survivor no matter what. She has already beaten the disease by having this amazing, colourful life; for toughing it on the streets before retiring among olive trees. I need to tell myself this whenever I feel sad.

Unfortunately she has not tolerated this round as well as the last. Her spirits are fine, she still explores and ambles and cuddles up to me in bed, which are crucial indicators of life quality for me, but she has lost her appetite which I find incredibly vexing. Actually she is always interested when I bring her food but she takes one look at it and pulls a face of disgust. I suspect she has nausea ( which is a common side effect for cats)  but it has been five days now and I find it hard to watch. She is at least eating little offerings and drinking lots of water. I am feeding her with a syringe though to keep her liver healthy. She doesn't struggle too much actually because I think she likes the feeling of food in her stomach, She just cannot face the smell, the taste or the chewing. She will see Alberto again next Wednesday but I hope before then she will have begun to improve.

Other than this she seems very content.

On another even more distressing note, I find myself without words regarding what is happening in Syria. I feel like the whole world is complicit somehow. All of us sitting back and watching it unfold from our collective armchairs. The solution though? Certainly not the Orange One sending out some of his war toys. The situation is simply too sad and simply cannot be sustained. Assad has to go but how is the greater problem.