Butters was the coolest cat in the world.  The greatest combination of loving and playful.  She touched ever heart she ever met.

Butters was born with a heart defect called a Ventricular Septal Defect, or VSD.  This caused an enlarged heart.  A loud murmur could be heard when she was 10 weeks old, and her previous owner (who also told us she was male, hence her name) had her looked at by a vet and had her dewormed, there is no way her first vet didn't hear the murmur.

We knew she had the murmur at 10 weeks, an enlarged heart twice the size it should have been at 11 weeks, and the diagnosis of VSD and chronic conjestive heart failure at 3 months.

We were told from the second vet visit that she could literally die at any time.  I learned to not take for granted any day I was able to spend with her.  We had a couple of scares...she went in and out of congestive heart failure, but she kept fighting.  I kept telling her she was going to live to be 16.  She lived to be 2-1/2, more than 2 years longer than any of the vets thought possible.

She was a fighter and she taught me a lot.  She taught me to fight as long as you can and get as much out of each and every day as possible because each day could be the last you spend with a loved one or your last.

To Butters, I love you, miss you, and I'll see you on the other side.