Bebesh - The story of the love of a good women and a good cat.

This is my story of one of those curves that life throws at you from time to time.  In early 2013 my plan was to get engaged with the love of my life and to get her a ring that would scream out my love for her.  However, in late February my furry 4 1/2 year old son Bebesh was diagnosed with a low grade fibro sarcoma in his neck.

This not only devastated me, it gave me a reality check that brought everything into perspective and fast. The thought of losing Bebesh was heartbreaking. For such a young cat Bebesh has already had his fair share of health issues. He was diagnosed with Feline hyperesthesia syndrome in 2011 and suffered a minor stroke in 2012, which he made a 100% recovery from. One thing I have learned about him is that he is a fighter.

Although I wanted badly to get engaged to the one girl that would make any cloudy day that much brighter. I had to put any engagement plans on the backburner in order to make sure I could do everything in my power to help my little guy beat his cancer. Knowing that it may jeopardize my marriage plans, I didn’t think twice, and luckily my other half completely understood. After a successful surgery by Dr. Ting of the Animal Specialty Center in Yonkers, NY, the entire tumor was removed.

I then took my little man to The Veterinary Cancer Center of Norwalk for radiation treatment that would take 1 month due to the fact that the radiation had to be in such little doses. The treatment was Monday through Friday every day for 4 weeks.  I of course would drive up every Friday like clockwork to bring Bebesh home for the weekend so that he didn’t feel alone and scared. As if Mondays alone weren’t dreadful enough, having to drop him off made it even worse. It broke my heart every time he would look into my eyes and meow as I would walk away. Thankfully Dr. Farrelly and his wonderful and caring staff were able to successfully treat Bebesh over that 4 week period to remove any leftover cancer cells from his little body. Needless to say after the surgery, money was tight and I had eaten into the money I had set aside for Jackie’s ring. Once again I didn’t think twice although getting engaged was important to me Bebesh’s life was priceless. Then a godsend was given to me in the form of a grant by the Riedel & Cody fund. With their help it lessened the financial blow I was taking to the chin with the cost of the treatment.

Bebesh recovered from the surgery and radiation beautifully and is now doing great with no sign of recurrence and a greater than 85% chance there will be no recurrence whatsoever. With that bullet dodged I now had to figure out a way to put my engagement plans back on track. I sacrificed here and scraped there but 2 months after successfully treating Bebesh I managed to get a ring made for Jackie and picked it up 1 day after our 3 year anniversary (June 25th). On June 28th I took her to the place we had our first date, got down on one knee and asked her to be mine forever (and also Bebesh’s mom..lol) and she said YES!

To sum it all up, life threw me a curve and I managed to hit it out of the park, thanks to The ASC, VCC, Jackie, and of course God. Looking back I believe god put me in Bebesh’s life knowing I would take care of him and that daddy would always be there for him no matter what.