Poor kitty
The cat is back from the vet, with big bald patches on her backside, her side, and one of her front legs, and a patch that is slowly dispensing painkiller. She’s eating, and sat on my lap to be petted for about half an hour, but is definitely moving slowly. We need to find a store that sells unflavored metamucil, because she’s not at all pleased to find her cat food suddenly flavored orange.
We had her anal glands removed yesterday, because they kept on getting impacted and infected. Fingers crossed that she will resume using the litter box now. We’re also really hoping that this is the underlying cause of the unexplained weight loss she’s had — the vet was sure it was her thyroid, but all of the blood work came back perfectly normal.
The surgery was expensive, and I’m still not entirely sure that we did the right thing. It seems wrong that a cat should have this sort of medical care in a world where kids go without basic things like immunizations. But we’ve taken on the responsibility for this cat, in a way that we haven’t for the rest of the world. It didn’t seem right to either let her suffer, or to put her to sleep. If caring for the cat would mean that we didn’t have food to eat, I wouldn’t have done it, but it doesn’t.
The really pathetic thing is that I’m not all that fond of the cat, not the way I was about our other cat, who died about four years ago. That one had been mine since I was a teenager, and she used to sleep under the covers with me when it got cold at night. This one was my husband’s originally, and has never been that cuddly with either of us.
But she’s remarkably gentle with the boys, and has never scratched either of them, in spite of being provoked at times. It’s surprising, because she’s not always gentle with adults — she’s one of those cats that will demand attention and then suddenly decide she’s had enough and claw you without warning.
Heal fast, little one.
November 19th, 2004 at 7:54 pm
Good thoughts from ours to yours 🙂