Un giorno lungo

Yesterday was an extremely long day as we had to put Nigel to sleep. It has actually been difficult since we arrived in Rome (the reason I haven't been posting more actively). He started acting funny before we left New York, but we attributed it to the stress of moving and the commotion of people buying our sale items. He was great on the plane but when we arrived, it took him awhile to come out of the traveling bag. He was walking kinda funny, but we were hoping he just had to go to the bathroom or needed time to adjust to his new environment. After a couple of days of worrying, we took him to a vet. The vet was very kind and helpful. He didn't provide us the news we wanted but at least we got an answer - he saw a cyst near Nigel's kidneys. The vet wanted a second opinion so we took him to an animal hospital yesterday and they confirmed the cyst, adding that it was a form of lymphoma. The poor little guy was in a lot of pain and already having feline leukemia didn't help. Jessica and I took him back to the apartment and made the decision to call yet a third vet to have him put to sleep. It was a tough choice because we love him so much but we couldn't see him in so much pain. Sorry for the morose update but now you know.