Dear Mr. Xxxxx:

It is with great difficulty we write to you today. Our nightmare started in the winter of 2006/07 with the diagnosis of aggressive cancer for our beloved 16 month old golden retriever, Harry. It was during this emotionally and financially painful period when we noticed our cat, Jessica, was very ill. It was mid February when we discovered her to seem at death’s door practically overnight. She was 15 then so we attributed her sudden condition to her age when we made her vet appointment that morning for what we expected to be her last vet visit. Something in the way she became sick with acute renal failure made our vet say “let’s give her a chance” so although we were prepared to say our goodbyes…we were thrilled to hear she had a chance of returning to her happy life with us. As the days went by she started slowly getting better with supplements and medicines, although eating was a challenge and would not eat the food she was fed for the last 10 years. Despite attempts at forced feedings by us all, she flat out refused her “Special Kitty” food but would eat some others. It was such a surprise when 3 weeks later my younger cat, Smudge, came down with the same thing…I knew it must be some kind of cat flu and could not wait for our vet to see her. Unfortunately she was much sicker with the same affliction…acute renal failure…and was not expected to survive the day…She was kept in our vet’s hospital for 8 days and then we brought her home for a long battle to give her a chance of life…we gave her round the clock forced feedings for months. While Smudge was in the hospital we heard the news report by Campbell Brown on Friday March 16, 2007 that there were a few isolated cases of acute renal failure associated with certain types of food…and I suddenly knew what was wrong with my two cats….It was not a flu, they had not eaten Easter lilies, had not “got into” Harry’s chemo waste…they were poisoned by the food I fed them…and even tried to force feed one of them…

During the cat’s illnesses and prior to finding out the cause, the tension in my home was palpable. There were financial difficulties in our home prior to Harry’s cancer diagnosis, but we still made the painful decision to give him a chance at a life beyond 16 months. We had decided “to tighten our belts” so when we suddenly had an additional two ill cats needing expensive treatments…our plan fell apart… What was normally a quiet happy household would turn into yelling matches at how much we could continue with care for our beloved pets…Tears were aplenty ..Not only because of the sadness of the health of three out of four of our “4 leggers”, but the financial burden became overwhelming. We fortunately had a vet who understood our situation and allowed us to pay him in installments but some of those installments were paid to him in lieu of the utility bills.

The rest of my cat’s recovery and ultimate deaths are too painful for me to write about in detail. Jessica left us on my 50th birthday in December 2007 and Smudge left us one year later. They both died in renal failure…both with my daughter’s sorrow heard echoing through the walls of the same vet hospital that had struggled to save them…from something that should have never happened…

It might be easier for me to think of my family’s “journey” as a result of an elbow knocking something over and into the cat food…thinking that it was just a horrible accident…but knowing that this was allowed to happen to our whole family, and to too many others to count, because someone did not play by the rules. I was raised to know that every action has a consequence and to think my actions/decisions through. I expect that of others as well. As sad as it was to lose our Harry to his cancer, I did not have the guilt that I live with each day knowing that I had a hand in the illness and ultimate deaths of my two formerly happy and healthy kitties…all because someone did not do the right thing.