Some of you know the pet my wife and I have shared our lives with, and you ask about her often, so I figured I would post here and let you all know.
She's nearing the end now. Since July we've known she was having kidney problems. In the past three months she's lost a lot of weight and her eating is erratic. She's slowing down and napping a lot more. She really hasn't wanted to go outside (except on the balcony/deck) for a few weeks. This week we'll have her blood tested and see how far she has come along. We don't expect good news.
Isis has been a good kitty to us. She never ran away, she never sprayed the furniture, and she always came home when we called her. The only bad thing about her was we were her family and she never did accept anyone else. We tried having more cats and she never wanted them around. When she first would met our friends she would either hide, or if they tried to pet her she would swipe at them. Isis was always protective of us. It was only after several meeting that she would warm up to our friends.
Isis is pretty old for a kitty, she's been with us for 18 years, and we think we found her when she was a year old (the vet couldn't tell us her exact age). We don't know what her first year was like, although we think her previous owners weren't very good to her. She still sometimes will startle at the oddest things. We found her roaming Chagrin South Reservation, and she came to us, ignoring all the other people there. At the time we lived in an apartment, so she didn't have much room. When we bought the house she got to go out more and hunt. She really liked that, although it's been over a year since she's brought us presents. It took her nearly five years before she would sit on our laps, and even then she never stayed long, and at least for me, it was very rare anyway.
Of the two of us, she likes Bette the most. Although I'm the only one Isis will let pick her up without a struggle. I'm the only one she's allowed to pet her stomach or chin.
We don't want her to suffer or be in pain. And we will miss her terribly when she's gone. She was our little cat.
7 comments:
Thanks for sharing this, Steve. As you probably guessed, I have a cat, too. She puts up with me writing, which is about as boring an activity a cat can ever watch. As a human goes, I'm a pretty boring toy.
My sympathies to you and your wife on this one.
We went through pretty much the same thing with Ollie earlier this year. It's hard to go through and I hope you have a vet with good bedside manner (for the owners). It makes a difference.
Rick, yeah, I kind of figured there were a few in your life. :)
Nathan, I've never met our current vet, although I know some of the emergency/overnight ones. Right now it's just getting all the ducks in a row, and accepting it fully. But we really want at least one of us to be with Isis when they give her the shot. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to be there (as we'll get the blood results after I've left for a writing retreat). So I've been spending time petting her and just being with her.
I've already had my moment when I said goodbye to her. It was a good petting session with lots of purring and begging for more petting. Followed by a good, deep nap, butt to butt.
Today she hasn't eaten much, even of the tuna (which we've been using as an appetite stimulant). But she's gone this way before, and then gotten hungry later. Right now I'm at the writers group so we'll see when I get home (Bette is there all day).
I have three cats, all three rescues, all three family. I've had pets a good portion of my life, and it's never easy to part with them. My sympathies go out to you and your wife.
Vince, yeah, it's not so fun. It's harder on my wife as Isis is her cat.
It's hard to lose a friend like that. I'm sorry for your loss.
Thanks, Camille.
She had her blood drawn today, and we've been told we'll have the results back tomorrow. Only three options, doing okay, slipping but still time, and bad.
Post a Comment