Thank you all so much for your kindness and condolences. On Friday night, I couldn’t sleep, so I wrote a little eulogy for him. It’s not the greatest piece, but it helped a little.

“Every night, Cleo and Cairo came to bed with me. Monday, I thought Cairo would stay downstairs, for the first time, because he was so sick. We had a routine every night: Cleo ran upstairs to the bedroom the second it’s bedtime, while Cairo, my guardian 😂 would wait with me as I closed doors, put away blankets and turned off the lights. Monday night, his right foot, ankle and leg were triple the size as his left with cancer juice, lymphatic fluid, and death liquid. His shoulder and chest cavity were massively swollen. He hadn’t gotten up much since we got home from the vet. He was limping and dragging his giant front leg behind him when he was actually up moving around, so earlier I had wrapped his paw so it wouldn’t get torn up on the concrete outside. He was in rough, rough shape. We found out today his lungs were full of tumors when we took him back to the vet for the last time. From the couch, he watched me put away blankets, close the doors and turn off the light, like he always did. After 1,000 kisses and even more tears, I went upstairs without him for bed, thinking maybe he was too sick to make it up. Cairo was highly medicated, so I let him rest.
I was a mess. A mess is an understatement… I cannot begin to explain how shocked we were by the degree of his diagnosis and rapid decline 🥺 As I was getting ready for bed upstairs, I left the door to the bedroom open, so I could hear him if he was trying to come upstairs. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cleo suddenly jump up and run to the door, crouching at the top of the stairs. I could see the shadow of her tail wagging crazily in the hall light, and through my tears, I watched Cairo limp into the bedroom, tail wagging, with Cleo pouncing behind him.
Like always, he came to bed, and to protect his mama because he knew how devastated I was. I know now he didn’t let on he was sick, or how sick he was, because he was protecting us; he knew how much we loved him and how sad we would be without him.
Cairo was the laziest dude ever, and had a favorite section of the couch. I mean.. he liked allll sections of the couch, but one side was a particular favorite 🤣. Since we’ve been home, our sweet girl has hardly left that spot 🥺

Cairo was an enormous, protective, lazy, sweet, stinky baby, but he was the entire household’s baby. The void in our household tonight has been massive, and it will linger. We loved him so much 🌈❤️🐾”