Skipper the Cat

I just peeked in on our cat. She's sleeping on our son's bed with her head on a pillow. It looked really cute. I'm checking on her a lot lately because she has a tumor in her eye, and I think any day it could do her in. Now, I could have her eye removed, but there are these issues to consider: she's 14, a senior, we've given her a great life, as a kitten, we snatched her minutes before she was carted off to the pound, and I have a $500 limit for any medical procedure. I've always joked that she and I have an agreement. My hubby says, "are you sure she agrees with that?"
When we were dating and 7 years into our marriage, my hubby always proclaimed he hated cats. I always told him, "it's because you have never lived with one."
Well, one day when our son was 6 and hubby had a job out of town, and was only home every other weekend, we got a cat. Sonny boy and I just went to the pet store to look at the Dwarf Russian Hamsters, the birds, the snakes and the guinea pigs. At the front of the store was a man asking if anyone wanted this black kitten. My son looked at me and said, "Please, Mommy?" The man said, "I've been here 4 hours, and I have to go to work. I'll have to take her to the pound if I can't find an owner." So we took her home and sonny boy named her Skipper.
When we met hubby at the airport a few days later, sonny boy says, "Guess what Daddy?" And hubby, without missing a beat says, "You got a cat." How did he know?
He acted mildly interested in her in the beginning. He would watch her chase leaves, or run through the house, or stand up on her back legs, which we would call "The Bear," and say, "she sure knows how to have a good time."
Now, 14 years later, it's "come here kitty, come to Daddy." And "how's my kitty?" And when he comes home from the gym, he lays on the floor cooling off, she likes to lick his balding head." They have a nice relationship.
So, she's had this tumor in her eye about 5 years now and I didn't know what it was until a year ago. For the first 3, I would ask the vets, and they would say, "nothing," or "it looks like a freckle." Then last year at her check up and shot time, a different vet said, "that's a tumor," and gave me the name of a veterinarian ophthalmologist. I did call, just to get a ball park figure of what could lie ahead. $2000.
She still seemed good at the time, slowing down a little, but eating, grooming, purring, getting a little feisty now and again.
Four months ago, we woke up with her curled up next to us, still as a stone. Her eye was glued shut and gooey. I thought the tumor exploded her eye, so I called the vet to have her put down. Low and behold when we got to the vets, she opened both eyes and meowed loudly at the doc at he lifted her out of her carrier. Her eye was intact, so he gave us eye drops and pain medicine and she got back to acting normally. 2 drops a day keeps the doctor away.
She was a fierce kitten. Born to a feral mother, she loved to fight. As she's aged, she's mellowed. Her agility was astounding. She could jump up on the top of the closet door or the shower door and look down on her prey. Well, us, her staff. She could jump from the floor to the top of our son's shelving that we called his museum because it had rocks, leaves, creature skeletons, mineral samples and dinosaur bones, and she wouldn't disturb a single item.
I'll keep up the drops and peek in on her when she sleeps.