SD 1399–1430: What a month. What a year. I once again should have written sooner so I could have written less. We made the hard choice to say goodbye to Babycat on Thursday. She’d had a bit of a rough past year. Starting with constant diarrhea and GI issues which we got a handle on through diet change only for her to start having skin issues and over grooming due to arthritis pain leading us to having to cone her for a good chunk of last year.
She was taking regular steroid shots to help with the pain and the occasional anti-anxiety med because we live in a society. We finally got the cone off in December. We took her for a regular checkup thinking she maybe had a UTI due to strong smell on Saturday right before the brickwork started in mid January and her lab results showed she was in critical condition from anemia, had lost weight, and still had elevated white blood cell counts. We spent Sunday partially packing our place up and moving stuff away from the walls in preparation for the brickwork to start on Monday. It also happened to be the coldest it’d been in four years and the longest string of cold days in decades.
Our first Airbnb on Sunday didn’t have fully running water due to partially frozen pipes. They worked on it for several hours but it still didn’t unthaw so we moved to an upstairs unit on Monday. While Matt and I moved our stuff, Dane took Babycat to an emergency vet to stay in the ICU for monitoring for a few days and to receive a transfusion. The transfusion helped and she kept eating and grooming throughout everything, but you could see her getting less steady when she walked and she was starting to have more difficulty getting up onto the couch. But she was exploring more in the Airbnb when she returned and we got a few more drugs so were hopeful. An ultrasound showed a growth on her liver but it appeared static and they felt it was benign.
We came home and a couple more weeks passed and she went in for a checkup at the emergency vet Friday before last and her red blood cell count had dropped again. It felt like she started declining more after getting back from the vet. We took her in for a checkup at her regular vet on Monday since we were worried and her red blood cell had dropped even further. We waited a few frustrating days for full test results but basically knew it’d only be bad news. She’d thrown up a couple more times and seemed very weak. She’d also started consistently missing her litterbox because she’d step in and stay on the edge and pee over the side. The emergency vet finally called back with results which showed white blood cells 10 times higher than normal and higher than she’d ever seen.
Chemo was raised as an option, but with her already so weak we’d decided we wanted to say goodbye now before she declined even further. And so we took her in Thursday afternoon with Matt, Dane, and I all being there in the room with her for the procedure. Even at the end she pooped on the floor of the room and tried to scrape to cover it up and was walking around exploring the room. When the vet gave her the anesthetic to put her to sleep Babycat turned her head and curled up next to the vet’s hand which was heartbreaking. And then after she was gone and we were there with her body, BeReal went off. I did not take a picture.
The vet records put Babycat’s birthday as 7/24/10, so she was only 13. Really hoped I’d have more years with my little lady. It’s been very sad not having her here and not having anyone to greet us when we get home. She’s really my first real pet and the first I’ve had to say goodbye to. That asshole Kittens is still around though. So that’s the most immediately depressing thing in my life! There’s also been other health issues with humans. And some people have war in their countries. Sigh.
Also, the brickwork is done! The actual work which I was very nervous about turned out to be much less stressful than the Airbnb and Babycat’s health. So there’s that. Now to try to do all the other things we’ve been putting off. There was so much dust. But not I feel silly going into detail when I’ve just talked about Babycat at length.
Other highlights from a stressful few weeks were going to Anne and Renee’s for a game night of 5 player Catan. I lost. Then we finally went to see Luke and Alison’s place in Hyde Park and played Smallworld. I lost again.
We went to see the Sufjan Stevens musical Illinoise at Navy Pier with John and Lauren and it was really incredible. Kind of need to see if we can go back again. We had brunch with Dom. We went out for Monster’s birthday at the Native on Friday night. It was good to get out of the house. Then we had brunch with Tara and Jane yesterday after not seeing them since all of their crazy house stuff that started last fall. Work is picking up. I gotta get my head back into that space as it’s been tough between house and Babycat.
