Oh no - no, no. I do not have fitting words, so I will send someone else's - a really good English translation of Neruda's Oda al gato, which is full of bits like this:

but the cat
wants only to be cat
and every cat is cat
from whiskers to tail,
from presentiment to living rat,
from the night right up to his golden eyes.

My deep sympathies to you & Rob; I hope Abbie experiences as much joy and comfort as possible in his remaining time, whatever form it takes.