re: #292 makeitstop

We took our oldest cat to the animal hospital this morning, because he’s not doing well. He’s lost a lot of weight and muscle mass, though he remains alert and every bit as stubborn as he’s been for his whole life.

The doctor told us that his chances of pulling out of this are about 10%, but we went for blood work and rehydration anyway. He was in a similar situation nine years ago - the doctor gave him a 10% chance then of recovering from diabetic shock - and not only did he come back, but his diabetes completely went away.

My wife and I are trying to be careful not to make this about us and not the cat, but Zoey is a tough old animal, and I was sure he was going to check out the last time he wandered up to the Bridge and he surprised us. I’ll take one more chance with the big guy, and we’ll know better which way to go tomorrow. For all the joy he’s given us for the 14 years he’s been in our lives, I think we owe him that. If we need to say goodbye, we will. But where there’s life there’s hope. Cross your fingers for our old man cat.

It’s always hard. When one of my cats had kidney failure, I nursed her along for almost a year because she seemed to be enjoying her life — but I wonder to this day whether I waited too long. Another stopped eating, and turned out to have inoperable stomach cancer. I tried chemo for a bit, but after two weeks she wasn’t responding, ate and drank nothing I didn’t force down her throat, and was so weak she had trouble getting to her litter box, so I decided she was done.

Both of those “cases” were cats about eight years old — your Zoey has had a splendid run no matter how it ends.