And Now...

[porphyry]

...just to add the icing to this illness-brother hospitalization-illness-ice storm-illness-snowstorm-disrupted classes due to cancellations-icestorm-illness-car wreck-injured child-injured mother-snowstorm-four plagiarist students this term cake--

... my cat died.

I suppose I should take the long, philosophical view. He was sixteen-years-old, almost seventeen, so he'd had a long, happy life. Three or four days ago, I noticed he'd stopped eating and drinking, never good in a cat (or dog, either). He would be tempted by nothing, and nothing is more pitiful than to watch an animal try to take a drink--want to take a drink, badly--and be unable to. He didn't appear to be in pain, but I couldn't take watching him like this anymore. Today he went to the veterinarian and we learned his kidneys were shutting down. We let him go.

He was a sweet cat--more like a dog than a cat, actually; friendly, affectionate, faithful even. We will miss him very much.

Comments

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Billy had had ongoing kidney problems, too--his creatine levels always measured high (I think that's the indicator for kidney trouble), and we, too, fed him a special diet for a number of years. Perhaps this trouble is really more common among male cats.