Once In A Lifetime Companion

10/31/98-6/13/03

Our beloved feline, Gus, tragically said his good-byes to us on June 13th, 2003 after major complications with a saddle thrombus. I cannot begin to explain the immense pain and enormous loss we experienced.

You would have never known, but Gus lived a good part of his life with an an advanced incurable heart condition, feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a disease of the heart muscle. HCM is when areas of the heart muscle thicken and enlarge so that the heart cannot relax and fill properly. Gus' heart was severely enlarged and he was also very young. Because cats are masters at disguising illnesses and because HCM is an insidious disease, it is often unfortunately diagnosed in its advanced stage.

This web site was created in January of 2003 to honor our sweet Gus and to share some Feline HCM web sites that we found very helpful when we were trying to find out everything we could about this terrible, incurable disease. We also hope to reach out to people that would like to learn more about feline HCM and give support to people that have suffered the loss of a feline friend.

We are always glad to respond to e-mails if anyone has any questions about Gus and more than happy to talk about Gus, especially if it means helping out another cat.

Thanks for visiting,
Steph & Steve

"Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world,
which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime,
and falling in at night. I miss you like hell."

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Gus Louise Sam Harry Angel Friends Photos Links