The last couple of weeks our cat Cannelle had not been eating properly, and we took her to the vet yesterday. That morning I noticed that there was a thickening of the skin over her tummy. The vet noticed that she had difficulty breathing, did an X-ray and said there was secondary metastases in the lungs. She could have had palliative treatment but it would have been weeks rather than months. She was ten years old and until a couple of weeks ago still behaved like a young cat. We were devastated but we both agreed that she should be euthanised then rather than struggle on. We had two cats previously, one we got at the same time as cannelle but he was much older, who had to be eventually put to sleep, but in retrospect we think we hung on for too long and they suffered as a result and even if they were not in pain which I think they were, they lost a lot of their dignity and joie de vivre. As a result Christmas eve was a washout. In France normally the blow-out meal is on Christmas eve. We had cheese on toast - we weren't hungry. We will have the steak tonight and the turkey on Friday. It was a decision which we didn't want to make but were content to have made.