It's been a while since I've posted here. I've taken to posting even cat related info on my other blog, "Older... but better". But I thought I'd just update this site today with a video of Ghost.
I started this a few days ago, but didn't get back to it for many reasons. We were out of town for a few days and there's always so much 'catch up' when home again. But the biggest reason is that Jack hasn't been doing too well. Those of you who have followed my blog, know that he was diagnosed with some form of Feline Leukemia when he was 4. He was one of 5 siblings that we took in when their feral mama basically dropped them off in our back yard at 3 weeks old. This is how our previously 3 cat house-hold made the giant jump in numbers.
Our grand daughter (who was 3 at the time) took Coco home and our oldest son took 2 females. We kept Jack and Tux. As the years passed, one of the little females (Julie) came back to us when son remarried and she didn't get along with new wife's dogs. Anyway, when Jack was diagnosed, we had them all tested. All were negative, but Jack. Since we've never let any of them go outside and had had them all tested before bringing them in as kittens, we were mystified. The only answer seems to be that he inherited it from his feral mama and it didn't show up until he was 4. Over the years, he has had episodes where his blood count would drop dramatically and he would turn yellow. The Vet would put him on fluids and Preds, and he always rallied. There have been several times that they mentioned putting him down... but we never seriously considered it since his eyes were bright, his coat shiny, and his appetite good.... and except for these infrequent episodes, he did fine. It was not time.
Jack is 10 now. Yesterday he was having a lot of trouble walking. He has had a wonky walk for a few months, has lost weight, and seems to remain yellow these days. We didn't take him in earlier because there really isn't much they can do and we didn't want to have to consider putting him down again. But this week when he was having real difficulty walking, we were afraid that he was suffering. We don't want him to suffer... especially because we are selfish and want to keep him with us. So we took him in.
Basically they didn't tell us anything we didn't know, but did help us to try something that may make him more comfortable. He is in liver failure. And the Preds have probably caused the loss of muscle tone in his hind legs - but that was the price paid to keep him going these last six years. They doubted the Preds were doing much more at this point and perhaps by cutting him back some, it might stop further loss. They asked if we'd talked about putting him down and we told them that we have, but we weren't sure if it was time yet. The Vet said that if we weren't sure, then it wasn't time. But we have to address the possibility that the inevitable is nearing.
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