The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
Much to our surprise, Winnie came home tonight. She was very weak, and would only drink water. She refused milk, her favorite food, and even cheese. She wobbled when she walked, and even though she had returned, we knew it wouldn’t be for long.
As happy as we were to see her, in some ways this is worse. We had already made our peace with her being gone. Now we face the difficult choice of watching her deteriorate, or deciding on a more final course of action. I think for the time being we will keep her inside with access to plenty of food and water and see if she will start eating again. Winnie is known to not eat when she’s stressed, so maybe we can still turn things around. However, my gut feeling is that she has come back to say goodbye.