"Art Shapiro" wrote in message
...
It's pretty sad around here; my favorite cat Calico, only 14 1/2, had to
be put down last night. A couple weeks ago she got somewhat lethargic,
spending most of her time on one chair. She started drinking more and
more, and last weekend stopped eating. This didn't seem to be expected
given her thyroid condition. I give her Tapazole twice a day, or at
least hope she'll eat the food with the pill mashed into it, as Calico is
the cat that couldn't be picked up.

She spent the week in the hospital during the day and came home at night.
The vet found that one kidney was quite enlarged, as confirmed by an
ultrasound on Thursday. Sure enough, tests showed it was sudden kidney
failure, as the readings had been just slightly high a few months ago at
her yearly checkup. She had a heart murmur, which we had known for a
couple years, but had developed high blood pressure. The vet felt that it
was probably renal cancer, but the initial biopsy came back negative
yesterday.

She dropped weight quickly - the former 9 pound cat had been in the upper
7s this year, and was 5 pounds 2 ounces on Wednesday, and 4 pounds 6
ounces, skin and bones, on Friday. She would only eat when force-fed, but
was as happy as ever, purring away. We agreed there was nothing to be
done and said goodbye last night just before they closed, My housekeeper,
the Eerz lady you may remember, held her; I've never been able to do that.
Interestingly, Calico seemed to be happy for my wife's attention, whereas
she had virtually never gotten near my wife in all those years, usually
running away.

Aside from the one huge problem of not letting herself be picked up -
until (to my surprise) about the last three months of her life - she was a
magnificent cat. She was always extremely happy, purred constantly, and
was my constant companion in the house. I made her an indoor cat about 7
years ago, because I had to coax her inside at night (taking as long as
five hours) and it just got ridiculous. But it worked out well. The last
five years she loved to be under the covers at night. I've not had a
kitty for whom it was so blatantly obvious that she was delighted with her
life with us.

It had taken one entire year, almost to the day, before I could touch her
after she arrived. The remaining 13 1/2 years were a joy. I sure didn't
expect her to be the next to go, with Watermelon Man looking so old. It's
very sad.

Art


I'm truly sorry, Art.

Jay