Bustednuckles

I had to have my 15 year old cat Baby put down this morning.

This is her after eating her last meal.

About a week ago she got real scarce for 3 days. Normally she was an indoor/outdoor cat but would be inside and come sleep with me at night. At least for a bit, then she would bail out and crash on the floor.

I didn’t see her for 3 days but the wife said she would come in, eat a few Kibbles and then take off again.

When she did finally come back her back legs didn’t seem to be working right.

She holed up in the kids closet and wouldn’t come out.

I finally found her and drug her up to the Pet E.R., I couldn’t get an appointment at her vet for two weeks.

$525 and several hours later, her blood and urine tests came back nominal. The Doc said it looked like test results from a two year old cat.

He couldn’t explain what was wrong. I kept suspecting Kidney Failure, which is pretty common in older cats but he seemed to suggest that here urine test ruled that out.

Could be Cancer or any other dozen things that go wrong with cats on a regular basis.

She laid around for a couple more days after that. She would eat wet cat food a little but no water intake and no signs of bowel movements.

When I went to pick her up this morning her bladder was so full she leaked all the way to the litter box.

I held her up in it but she wouldn’t go. So I let her drip until no more came out and then made her comfortable on the futon, fed her some and then loaded her up.

By some miracle the same vet that couldn’t see her before suddenly had an opening after I told them she had already been seen by the emergency room.

Uh Huh.

I hauled her up there and the only thing that vet wanted to do was to take an X Ray to see if her spinal cord had been severed as if she had been hit by a car.

I pointed out that there were no outward signs of any injuries and she didn’t seem to be in a great deal of pain.

After an examination and a very brief discussion it was decided that there was no hope of any kind of treatment, no hope for any kind of quality of life and that it was obvious since her last visit that she has been deteriorating for some time now.

Six pounds lighter than her last visit,

So I told them to do the dirty deed and be done with it.

Just the two visits cost me a Grand, I’m not spending thousands of dollars on a dying cat thank you very much. Seen that happen a couple of times.

She is gone now, I am having her cremated and will put her ashes up on the mantle next to the other two we have lost in the last couple of years.

Needless to say I have had a pretty shitty morning.

It’s all part of life, it’s not the first, second, third or even fourth time I have had to do this.

Doesn’t make it any easier though.

RIP Cat, you can shit in my sandals again when we meet on the other side here shortly.