A Request . . .
. . . for prayers. good thoughts, what have you.
My cat and companion for the last eight and a half years, Memphis, has all but lost her battle with old age and kidney failure. I've been trying to help her fight it, as her age has just plain been catching up with her, being well over 15 years old. (I adopted her when she was 7.) After trying to care for her myself, and seeing that she was starting to deteriorate rapidly, and not just suffering a case of the old-age creakies, I started looking for a vet who would take her. Found plenty who offered advice, but none could take her, because they were "too busy" and "too full". Anyway, after a week of trying and repeatedly pestering various area vets, I was able to get one to take her. She went in early Saturday, and, after these last several days, with antibiotics and fluids being pumped into her 24/7, her blood toxicity levels are not much improved at all, and her kidneys are showing no real signs of activity. She won't eat on her own, can't use the cat pan (or any place on the carpet, for that matter; I've made it clear with her that I won't be at all offended if she messes the carpet, at this point). I visited her each day, and she would seem to improve, little by little. She was showing such apparent progress that I decided to hold her in there for another day of treatment, allowing them to run blood tests and such one more time to see how things were going. But then the final blood work came back showing that, while toxicity levels had dropped a bit, it wasn't nearly enough. Even with the IV pumping in antibiotics and fluids, she would only last a few more weeks at most. Treatment is not working. If allowed to run its course, she would resume deteriorating, and die either of starvation, or from poisoning soon.
So, she is back home with me tonight so that I can say good-bye to her, back to living by the water bowl as she did before I took her to the vet, looking so pained and sad. I am taking a few moments away from her as she rests to get on here and ask people to please keep her in their thoughts. A miracle would be nice. If that can't happen, though, I will be taking her back in tomorrow, so that she can sleep, and be freed from her pain. I don't know what lies beyond this world, but I'm hoping that she goes to it gently, and finds peace there.
I want so badly to keep her here with me, to hope that she will somehow beat this, and I abhor at the thought of making this decision to end her life, the most precious gift any of us have. She's been my baby girl all these years, and the thought of coming home and not having her here, of never again getting to pet her while I watch TV, or have her bat the phone away from my mouth if I'm on it while lying down, it all hurts to no end. My heart hurts so much right now at thinking about this. But as I watch her staring at her reflection in the water bowl to occasionally lick at it . . . I feel it would be selfish, and will only result in her going out slowly, and in even greater pain and discomfort than she feels right now.
So, please, keep her in your thoughts? Please?
My cat and companion for the last eight and a half years, Memphis, has all but lost her battle with old age and kidney failure. I've been trying to help her fight it, as her age has just plain been catching up with her, being well over 15 years old. (I adopted her when she was 7.) After trying to care for her myself, and seeing that she was starting to deteriorate rapidly, and not just suffering a case of the old-age creakies, I started looking for a vet who would take her. Found plenty who offered advice, but none could take her, because they were "too busy" and "too full". Anyway, after a week of trying and repeatedly pestering various area vets, I was able to get one to take her. She went in early Saturday, and, after these last several days, with antibiotics and fluids being pumped into her 24/7, her blood toxicity levels are not much improved at all, and her kidneys are showing no real signs of activity. She won't eat on her own, can't use the cat pan (or any place on the carpet, for that matter; I've made it clear with her that I won't be at all offended if she messes the carpet, at this point). I visited her each day, and she would seem to improve, little by little. She was showing such apparent progress that I decided to hold her in there for another day of treatment, allowing them to run blood tests and such one more time to see how things were going. But then the final blood work came back showing that, while toxicity levels had dropped a bit, it wasn't nearly enough. Even with the IV pumping in antibiotics and fluids, she would only last a few more weeks at most. Treatment is not working. If allowed to run its course, she would resume deteriorating, and die either of starvation, or from poisoning soon.
So, she is back home with me tonight so that I can say good-bye to her, back to living by the water bowl as she did before I took her to the vet, looking so pained and sad. I am taking a few moments away from her as she rests to get on here and ask people to please keep her in their thoughts. A miracle would be nice. If that can't happen, though, I will be taking her back in tomorrow, so that she can sleep, and be freed from her pain. I don't know what lies beyond this world, but I'm hoping that she goes to it gently, and finds peace there.
I want so badly to keep her here with me, to hope that she will somehow beat this, and I abhor at the thought of making this decision to end her life, the most precious gift any of us have. She's been my baby girl all these years, and the thought of coming home and not having her here, of never again getting to pet her while I watch TV, or have her bat the phone away from my mouth if I'm on it while lying down, it all hurts to no end. My heart hurts so much right now at thinking about this. But as I watch her staring at her reflection in the water bowl to occasionally lick at it . . . I feel it would be selfish, and will only result in her going out slowly, and in even greater pain and discomfort than she feels right now.
So, please, keep her in your thoughts? Please?