Bad News: Chester the Kitty is gone...

Since Kristin was the bearer of good news, I guess I'll be the bearer of bad news. Yeah, I know... its a bit out of the ordinary to have a someone from the "Male" species post something on a blog. I feel a bit awkward too!
Kristin told you about "Rocky" our other cat that disapeared... We looked at endless shelters for weeks trying to find him, but to no avail. The reality was that he was gone for good, so we decided to get another kitty.
We wanted to save a kitty from a shelter so we looked and looked and finally found "Chester," a small abandoned 6 month old kitten. We were excited to take him home from the SL County animal shelter.
Everyone that met Chester, both cat lovers and haters couldn't help but love this kitty. He was extremely friendly and loved people. In fact, Kristin even referred to him as "Christ-like" ...yeah I know, its a cat?! But still, you'd understand after watching Makayla dive bomb and tackle him and yet he'd still be purring and rub against her leg or arm. Our other cat sparkles would hiss and growl at him and he would just rub his little face against her and then walk away.
After just 5 days, we noticed Chester stopped eating and would occasionally throw-up. When I called the shelter and explained the symptoms, they transferred me to their vet. When the doctor came to the phone he repeated the symptoms to me, which I confirmed-- he then responded and said your cats going to die soon. You can bring him in and we will give you a credit. Uhhh... A credit!? I responded, can't I just get some medication? The doc responded, no unfortunately your cat is going to die. Your cat has a virus called "Panleukopenia" which eats the lining of the digestion track which releases bacteria into the blood stream. The only option is to hospitalize your cat with an IV, this will cost thousands of dollars and only has a 5% success rate. ...So that's how we found out that "Chester" would soon die. The funny thing is that Chester had been vaccinated twice for this virus, but for some reason he still got it. We were shocked with the news and didn't really believe he would die. But, not more than a few hours later Chester died. He died just 2 days before Christmas.
Since the virus is highly contagious the shelter asked us to bring the kitten in for an autopsy. We do have to say that we were impressed with the shelters response to Chester's death. They have removed all kittens to isolation and sterilized all of the holding rooms and cages. No kittens will be adopted out for a full month. Even though Chester is just a cat... we sure miss the little guy.
For the last couple of hours Chester slept in the litter box in the basement. Right before he died he forced himself to crawl up our stairs to be with us. He actually made it to the last step before his body collapsed from exhaustion. We pet him for awhile then made him a bed in front of a the heater vent. He died soon after that.
We know all dogs go to heaven... I just hope there is room for a little kitty named Chester.