Great news, Chilidog!

Yay chilidog! Good news indeed.

Yas! Shelties is good people!

I've been real worried about the kitteh in my avatar - she'll be 18 in July, and she's been showing her age for the last year or so, including slowing down and losing a lot of weight. We took her to the vet about a year and a half ago, and after various tests were told that she either had bowel cancer or had a worsening of her inflammatory bowel disease, along with an enlarged heart. They wanted to do more tests but we declined. With a limited diet (only Natural Balance Limited Ingredient kibble, duck flavor, and a spoonful of plain yogurt every day), we finally got her chronic diarrhea under control, mostly. We decided to adopt a wait-and-see/keep-her-comfortable-and-happy treatment plan (i.e. no more vet visits unless absolutely necessary). She's been doing OK but was so skinny, it broke my heart - she used to be so fat and fluffy.

The good news is, the other night I was petting her and noticed she'd put some weight back on! The bad news is, we now have to retire the nickname "Skeletor."

I am glad to the good news about Ranger, c-dog. Also, for kitteh putting on needed weight.

I', so glad you have some good news on your cat!!!!

Sadly, I had to put my favorite kitty ever to sleep today. She was just a young 'um -- just getting ready to turn 3 next month. What was hard for me, just a week ago today she seemed like her usually self. The only thing that caught my attention is that something seemed "off" but it was nothing I could put my finger on. The next day, she was a bit listess and turned her nose up at some chicken -- something she never does. I picked her up and noticed her right eye was closed shut with caked crud on the lid. I went to remove it, barely touching her when a huge amount of yuk oozed out of her eye -- which scared me half to death. Turned out it was nothing major, just some conjunctivitis. I thought that THIS was what I sensed as "off" the night before.

The next few days she'd seem listless for awhile but then go back to her old self. Over the next the %age of time she was listless grew. I finally debated yesterday whether or not she was sick enough to warrent a visit to the vet or if it was just a reaction to the conjunctivitis. They did some blood tests and the results were really bad -- very, very low red and white blood cell counts combined with jaundice. It was bad enough that I took her to the emergeny animal hospital. They looked at her and her test results and said things were bad, really bad. They would run more tests to see if they could discover the cause and treat it if possible. They would consider a blood transfusion is there was any real hope of recovery.

The vet called me early this morning to tell me things were worse with her blood cell count. The doctor mentioned the possiblity of a blood transfusion and I immediately said yes. I knew it was going to be expensive but I made up my mind the day before that if she could be "fixed", I was willing to pay the price. The doctor called me an hour or so later and said things have gotten worse since he talked to me earlier and strongly suggested that I have my cat put to sleep because he didn't think she would make it through the day. I immediately drove to the hospital and one look at my cat convinced that the only choice was to let her die peacefully. Her condition had gone from bad to incredible bad since I brought in the night before. She perked up a little bit when she saw me which broke my heart. I sat with her for a long time telling how much I loved and recounted all the times we shared together. She seemed to take some comfort from my presence which helped a lot. I held her as best I could while the doctor gave her her final injection.

I brought her home with me and I will bury her in my backyard with 3 other cats that passed on. I plan to plant a garden around the area and will make a stepping stone for the site. When my girlfriend's dog died last year, I made a stepping stone with a silhouette of her dog on it. It was was very simple but elegant. I felt it was my best craft project ever and hope to give my cats a similar memorial. Right now I feel heartsick and very numb. She wandered into my backyard as a half-straved kitten -- so hungry she was trying to eat the birdseed in my feeder. I tell myself that because I took her in, she lived a far longer (and better) life than if I hadn't saved her. I think I gave her a happy 3 years filled with lots of love. That's the only thing that comforts me right now.

majorbabs:

So sorry about your kitty Babs.

Sorry about your kitteh, babs.

I'm so sorry to hear about kitty, Babs. Remember to eat decent meals while you're numb; it will help and comfort you. (It's easy to forget at times like these.) The craft project sounds perfect.

Were they able to give you any idea of what happened?



This is very similar to our dog Curie's last day. I still remember that very hopeful look. The things we manage to beat ourselves up over... I held her for a while after too.

We're the gods to them. We're supposed to take it seriously. So I do.

Oh Babs, I am so sorry to hear of your kitty.

I wish I could share one of mine with you.

(((Babs)))

I'm glad you got to sit with her.

Namaste.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. You can not appreciate how much they mean to me. The doctors don't know for sure what killed my cat so quickly, but they suspect it may be a parasite transmitted by fleas that destroy blood cells because it came on so quickly and so disasterously. I'll never know because once I made the decision to let her go, they cancelled the additional labs they had requested in order to save me some money.

I've been on a low carb diet for about 4 1/2 weeks. Normally when something bad like this happens, I turn to junk food or comfort foods which always seem to include potatoes. I went to the store thinking that some junk food might help with the heartache I feel. I surprised myself when I discovered none of these foods looked good to me or were even tempting me! This has never happened to me before so there is a teeny tiny ray of light with the whole thing. I did buy some foods to feast on but it was some fresh strawberries and blueberries.

I am surprised I responded so well since this past week or so has been a week from hell. The worse was my cat, but the second worse was that my computer died. Normally I should have been able to come up with a fix, but besides not working, the screen display was blank so I had nothing to give me feedback that I would need to fix the problem. I ended up buying a new computer because I figured that based on the costs to take my computer in for repair, the age of the computer and the fact that I needed to add more rom memory, it just made sense to replace it with a newer computer that had everything I needed. It also helped that the model I wanted was on sale. It was a long, long week without computer access. While I never had the shakes and such, I really had bad withdrawal symtoms. I especially missed the folks here and the updates on Orly antics. There were a number of other things that happened like I lost my spare car key -- you know the one that cost over $100 each. I had a pissy neighbor who decided to report me and my neighbors (both single women) because he was upset that our yards did not meet HIS standards. I also get to start therapy next week for a throat problem that makes it hard to swallow. There was other stuff but more hassle than anything really serious. As it is, I would gladly settle for everything that went wrong this past week if I could have my kitty back safe, sound and healthy enough to live another 15, 20 years.

Again, thanks you for the kind words because they have given me some comfort.

My kitteh is missing.

When I came home from school this afternoon, my front door was ajar. Nothing was missing and I live in a good neighborhood. I am thinking that it was not fully shut when I left this morning and the wind (which has been awful this year) may have blown it open.

Come back, Spot!

to Majorbabs, I so feel for you losing your kitty.

to Highlands, hopefully kitty will come home once he/she gets hungry.

Majorbabs, I'm so sorry about your kitty. The memorial you're planning sounds lovely and I know your babies will appreciate it from the other side of the rainbow bridge.

Highlands, all good thoughts and prayers for Spot to find his/her way home safely and soon. I know how scary it is when they're missing.

to you both.

I hope your cat finds his? way home tonight, none the worse for wear from his adventure. I know how upsetting it is when one of your "babies" suddenly goes missing while they heed the call of the wild.

My oldest cat decided to "tour" the neighborhood shortly after I first got him. I posted signs everywhere and make repeated trips out and about in my neighborhood. It dawned on me that there was another group of houses in another neighborhood on the other side of a couple of fences. I didn't think he had gone there because he had to have climbed over 3 fences -- including a backyard full of big dogs but I decided to post signs there as well. It was a good thing because that is where someone found him 3 days later.

Lucky for me, my cats will come to my patio door if I call them and clap my hands. That doesn't mean they will COME in the door the first time, or the second time or the third time I open the door.

Again, I hope your cat returns home safely and does so very soon, if not already.

I was reading about how cats also grieve when one of them dies. My one cat, who I call silly Sam because he could be a stand in for the actors in "Dumb and Dumber", was obviously showing signs of grief as he tried to mount my remaining female cat. And yes, they are both "fixed". It did make me laugh though and glad that my other cats are still here safe and healthy (knock on wood.)

"Pssst...hey baby. Wanna' help me assuage my grief?"



Thanks, Major - I'm probably a really sick puppy, but that gave me the greatest visual!

It was funny -- the famale was NOT a happy camper but sadly for her, Sam outweighs her by about 3 pounds. He is not fat -- yet, but getting closer every day. At leST this time he tried IT on a female. He's tried to do something similar to his real life brother once. doG only knows if he tried it on my other cats.

I have to say that Sam is the most sexual of any of my cats. I knew it was time to get him to the vet to get fixed when every morning, he would sit inches away from my face licking furiously at his gentials. Being the sick puppy that I am, I had to watch as he became "aroused". I tried to get a closer look, but couldn't see clearly enough, to see if it were true about male cat's penis being barbed like I read in the cat books. i DID SIMPLE IN THE INTEREST OF SCIENCE.

Truly, we are kindred spirits!

Majorbabs: I am so sorry to hear about your kitty. That is so sad.

Highlands: I hope your kitty stays safe and comes back soon!

Lots of good thoughts for both of you.

Spot the Cat has been found. Hubby was outside with the dog just before bedtime and heard his little meow. I think the kitteh is just as happy to be home as we are to have him home. Kid One is overjoyed. Thanks for all of the positive thoughts!

Congrats on Spot returning. It seem they do come back when they are hungry.

Maj Babs...I am so sorry to hear about your Kitteh. It does leave quite a hole in one's life for a while.

PK...I am happy to see your kitteh doing a little better.

Our Kittehs are lucky to have adopted us.