I want to tell you a story..
How i passed my night and days of my last 2 months..
I want to tell you A story about a cat that lived by the side of a little girl for her entire life gifting her with joy and love, even when she felt like not deserving it.
7 days before her 3th birthday she met him, with a soft beige fur and so much energy that he could run all day, everyday. She immediately knew he would fill her entire life of happiness. They grew up together, step by step & side by side. He taught her to love, she made him feel part of something wonderful as the family.
I still remember the moment we met, you where on a white blanket drinking from a little bottle. You have always remained by my side even in the worst moments, when i felt lonely and lost, you perceive it and made me feel your presence and always being ready to dry my tears. And now that you’re gone too i feel lost as i have never been before.
Eve
If i close my eyes i still can see you, running through the hallway waiting for me to chase you, your little eyes, peeking out from behing the furniture, looking for a hand to play with or catching a sheet sticking out from under the door.
I still wake up in the morning waiting for you to sat exactly on my face, to hear your meows, but instead i only hear a deafening and painful silence.
Sunny days are the worst. I hate thinking you can’t enjoy them anymore as you used to do. I hate having this instinct to look at the swing where you used to sleep and not finding you anymore
Every corner of the house screams your name and it feels like everything has frozen and time has stopped. I constantly waited for a sign from you knowing.
The 25th of July my beautiful munchckin passed away.
I want to tell you the story of how my cat died so you’ll learn something from it.
2 YEARS ago c.ca we discovered he had chronic renal failure, which is a common problem in old cats. If you don’t know what i’m talking about, it is a chronic disease due to which the body fails to properly expel toxins from the body and this led my cat to drink liters and liters of water every hour, every 30 minutes and, in the last period of his life, every minute. This also led to an excessive dehydration of the body as it immediately expelled the water he just drank. We were told there was not cure or treatment for this problem and that it was the first sign of his entire body failure.
Despite this health problem he lived his last years so happy and joyfull. He never had other health problems and he constantly played with me; i still remember how every morning he waited for my family to wake up at 5 a.m. more punctual of our clocks waiting for his food, and everytime he did not see anyone coming, he would wake us up with paw hits on our faces and immediately run to the kitchen as soon as our head no longer touched the pillow.
I still can remember the runs he did everytime he ended his food, the joyful runs he did when it started to rain on a hot day.
He did so until June.
He started having problems chewing his food. He continued to have a strong appetite, so he forced himself despite the problems and this caused him frustration. So i decided to take him to the vet for a visit and it came out that he had a slight stomatitis due to the inability of the kidney to control the levels of toxicity in the body and that caused the painful oral ulcers.
Keep in mind that at this point my cat was very well and nothing changed in 22 years, except for the little chewing difficulties. The vet then decides to give him a treatment based on 3.0 mg of cortisone (yep, i said “kidney failure” and “cortisone” into the same text!!) administered in a subcutaneous drip, not considering any blood test necessary, even though it had been a year or so since the last check. I was very skeptical in the treatment techniques used by this vet but i kept telling myself that i couldn’t do anything without having the proper knowledge in that field and that i had to place all my trust in him that has to deal with these issues everyday.
But he started to get worse and worse, day after day. After a week of therapy he even wasn’t able to walk on his own and his belly started to become bigger and bigger (the vet justified it as “the effect of the drop that required time to be totally absorbed by his body”).
At this point i wasn’t able to stay and watch this situation and that same night he began to vomit every minute, to be agitated, weak and to have a look lost in the void. I couldn’t even describe the situation without weeping in pain. I started to ask for help at every single opened emergency clinic (keep in mind that it is about 3.00 a.m. and everything is closed) but as soon as they knew my cat was 22 they pulled back slamming phones and doors in my face as they believed that was his fate to die and there was nothing else to do but wait for it. It was HURTFUL listening to all of these specialists not giving any hope just because of my cat’s age,without even granting a visit to him.
The next day i was lucky enough to find one of the best vet in my area who saved his life. Iwas told that he had been given the wrong treatment: For cats with chronic renal failure, cortisone treatment is something that only worsens the problem and blocks the chances of recovery as well as the effectiveness of all the medicines. This same treatment also caused the effusion of his liver ( this was the reason for the enlarged belly) and an increase in diabetes that caused disorientation. He had such altered medical values that even the vet was amazed at his strength and his effort to keep surviving.
In addition the same doctor never informed me that there are lifelong supplements to be given to my cat in case of chronic renal failure, nor that he should have followed a specific diet. Fortunately my cat was strong and lucky enough to survive two years or more with this disease without following this diet and medical treatment. But it hurts to know that he could have lived more if treated in the right way and from the right people, since the beginning.
My cat survived for another 2 months, still with obvious problems. But the previous cure of cortisone is something that remains in circulation and any subsequent treatment was minimized and nullified by it, preventing his total recovery. So nights and days no longer existed for me and for 2 whole months i spent every second of my days at his side, taking care of him and making sure that he could improve and get better. You asked why i disappeared and i wasn’t assiduous anymore on here and this is the reason of it. I totally canceled myself so that my cat could be better. Do not let anyone tell you “It is just a cat\dog\any other animal” because he had become part of me and in some moments he managed to give me much more relief and happiness than i had from other persons. I hope you learn something from my story.
Take care of your animals at every moment of his life.
Please inform yourself about the references of a vet specialist before putting your animal’s life in his hands.
Give him the medical care he deserves.
Do not five the words of the vet for granted and DO NOT GIVE UP just because your pet has been defined “too old to be treated”. We do not let people die without an an adequate medical treatment because they are too old and our animals DO NOT deserve it either!
His last night he suffered, bleeding from his mouth and calling me because he wanted me to stay close and to cuddle him. The morning i took him to the vet clinic, he leaned his head on the palm of my hand, purring and sighing with resignation. It was evident that he was struggling, fighting like a warrior because he wanted to live so badly. He tried so, SO hard to fight this battle, but he couldn’t do it anymore, so he gave me his last greeting, his last piece of love through a purr, a paw tightly helded to my finger and a “thank you for everything. I will never forget you” look in his eyes. I want to think that i gave him what he gave me everytime i suffered, love and a little bit of peace deep in my heart and soul.
The night after he died there was a lunar eclipse and i cried so much because i thought that for my entire life i lived every moment, every situation with him by my side and i don’t know my life without him. And my garden swing was so, so empty without him.. so i tried to imagine him there in some way: sitting on the moon while watching us from above as he used to do sitting on the modem of the house. I tried to think of the shadow that obscured the moon as the shadow of his butt. So i wasn’t alone anymore and my tears touched a small, soft smile on my mouth
-Spread the word. I don’t want anyone else to experience what I did in the last few months..-
----Please forgive my grammatical errors and lack of technicality in medical explanations-----
