Cats upon Cats
On Wednesday I took Jon Snow in for his follow-up from the medical extravaganza of last month. This was supposed to just be a check-up to see how all the medication he's been given is helping with his heart, but they did numerous X-Rays of his chest and found he's back in active heart failure with an incredibly bad prognosis. The wildest thing is that he was otherwise healthy seeming UNTIL the day we took him in for his check. I know stress levels and heart rate can be impacted by a trip to the vet but the chest x-rays show very real degradation and it's just weird given how he is at home.
On the bright side, we've upped the meds to clear fluid from his lungs and he, again, is back at home being as active as he ever was. You'd never know anything was wrong with him - and unlike traditional cat behavior, he's not hiding or trying to be alone for what we keep being told should be his end of life.
It's very confusing to have a healthy-seeming cat and be told "yea he's basically dying" while simultaneously having another cat at home who has terminal cancer and despite "should have 1-2 days tops" is on week three and a half of chilling, eating tasty foods, purring and getting quality time with his family.
Speaking of, this Wednesday will mark one month since Sparkle was first given a terminal, life-ending diagnosis that opened the 'how do you want to put him down' conversations. Hell, I started writing a retrospective of his life that night because I couldn't sleep...but he's still with us and it's very weird to think about posting a eulogy while he's able to both snuggle and cathandle me to try to steal my food.
Meanwhile as we deal with these two terminally ill cats and our hearts break and the reaping portion of sowing 'taking in needy animals who will have a shorter lifespan than you', two adolescent cats (I'm hesitant to say kitten but they're def under a year old) showed up on the side camera we have set up to catch shots of wildlife. We have several feral and TNR cats that show up all of the time but these are absolutely new.
Oh and they were doing the tail heart thing. On Camera. Fucking bonkers.
Anyway, in a vacuum sick cats would be hard enough, but outside of the cats we're dealing with my father having mostly run out options on his cancer treatments, and Della still doesn't have any answers on her mystery neurological symptoms that started (checks watch) roughly a year ago today. Oh and the whole 'quickening descent into fascism and climate collapse' if we zoom out even more.
I'm trying to find the joy in things, and so far it's working by focusing on making sure these animals, as sick as they are, are as loved as possible with the time they have left, and that they aren't allowed to suffer.
Anyway, hug your pets for me and send good vibes.