I am sorry to report that Sphinx has died.

Over the weekend, Sphinx was never very active. We thought at first that it was because she was in a new place and was uncertain. But she was not eating, so on Monday we took her to the vet. He diagnosed her with a viral infection, which she probably got at the animal shelter. He gave her several shots and said she would probably get well, but by Monday night she was even weaker. I slept most of last night with Sphinx on my chest because she had no body warmth of her own. This morning she was completely lifeless and could not even stand up. We took her back to the vet, looked at her eyes (which were unresponsive) and said she would die soon. We had the vet put her to sleep to avoid suffering, as she was having trouble breathing.

We have since learned that although the shelter is run by the city, it is run as a for-profit business and the owners pocket most of the money. The viral infection that Sphinx had will probably kill a number of the kittens there and the owners will do little about it. We are looking into ways to advocate on behalf of the animals there and try to get some oversight from the city.

Duncan and Emma are understandably upset. Their first cat lasted only four days. Duncan is taking is especially hard. He requested that we have a funeral tonight, which we did. Our reading was from Ecclesiastes 3:16-22.

We have since located a better place for buying a cat, so we are going there tomorrow to try again.