Tag Archives: kidney disease

At The End of The Day

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Feeling tired and sad tonight, as I sit and think about what’s coming on Monday. This will be the third kitty I have had to put down.

Smokie has kidney disease, just as the first two did. Kidney disease does awful things to kitties. They start losing weight and then have ferocious appetites. It’s the body’s way of maintaining the rapidly decreasing body weight. They urinate often and in very large quantities. They drink a LOT of water.

Since cats have their own distinct personalities, this disease causes their behavior to change in different ways. Fuzzy used to splash water out of the water dishes all the time and was very vocal (extremely loud) about being hungry. Korn stopped grooming himself and was a big matted mess that I couldn’t keep up with. He also stepped in his own pee clumps and got litter on his feet, which hardened later. He was a mess. About a year ago, Smokie decided she wasn’t going to pee in the litter box anymore. She would go outside the box; I mean right outside the box! She pooped in the box just fine. She also started using various places in the house to pee. We have had to put puppy pads in those places and around the litter box.

She is 15 1/2 years old. She’s not had the best life, but she was loved. I called her my “Franken Kitty” for a long time because of her accident. She was just a couple years old when it happened, but she either got hit by a car or kicked by a cow (or horse) but her jaw had been broken and had to be wired for a short time. The trauma to her head messed up her eyesight. She hasn’t been able to see much except shadows ever since. I guess I should have just put her down then… I couldn’t bear it then any more than I can now, but it has to be done. She’s not going to get better and I won’t watch her suffer.

She was the favorite of the litter when she was born. Her coloring was unique (I thought at the time but have seen many cats with that coloring since) and she was a sweetheart. She would catch mice and throw them around in the snow, which was a hilarious sight! She loved the snow. Even after her accident, she wanted to go outside, but she could only go out with supervision and sometimes she’d follow me on my walks. I remember one time, her momma brought her a mouse. I think momma knew there was something wrong with her.

A couple of years ago, we were able to build an enclosure for the cats. I call it the “catio.” The cats, including Smokie, can come and go as they please through the cat door. She loves that freedom. They all do. They spend more time out there than they do in the house. I love that they can go out and be safe.

Smokie will be missed, just as Fuzz and Korn are. I will be left with 4 kitties; Alice, Jack, Honey, & Kitty. Kitty is 12 this year and I hope she has at least 3 or 4 good years left. My heart needs time to heal. I will be taking a few days off from blogging, Facebooking, etc., to grieve. I hope to be back mid-week.

Thank you for reading and thank you for your support and understanding.

Good Laughs & A Tough Decision

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I have 2 kitties with allergies. This I discovered after two $100+ vet bills where antibiotics did not do the trick. Ugh. Figures, right? I found a homeopathic medication for felines with allergies and it cleared Alice up after just a few days. Jack, started getting the “snotsies” as we have come to call it, and so I started giving it to him as well. He’s still snottin’ a little but he’s much better than he was. The others have not had any problems, thankfully.

On the subject of kitties, I have come to the painful decision of having my 15-year-old nearly blind cat euthanized. I don’t want to do this but she has started showing signs of Kidney disease and after having watched 2 other furbabies suffer from the same thing, I have decided not to prolong it. She must be miserable; as I’m sure my other 2 were. She has been having troubles with her bladder for quite some time and quite frankly, I can’t go on forever putting puppy pads around the litter boxes and in various “favorite spots” all over the house. Poor Smokie has had a rough life. I’m not too sure when I’ll make the call, but probably in July sometime.

On a brighter note, my two 9-year-old grandkids had lunch with us on Thursday. They haven’t seen each other for a very long time! Heck, I haven’t seen them in around 6 months! We had a great lunch and it was fun catching up! We wanted DM to have lunch with us again today, but he had other plans and couldn’t make it. Maybe next time! DM has a cell phone now so we traded numbers and we have connected in a new way! I am sending him puns and jokes and he has tried to trip me up with riddles! The granddaughter stayed until today after lunch and a little shopping.

Granddaughter is quite the prankster, as I mentioned in the latest Friday’s Funnies. She really pulled a good one on her (gr)Grampa, which was supposed to be on both of us but I was too slow getting in there. Dad really thought that lizard was real! That lizard made his way to the kitchen, with the prankster’s help but I saw it and knew it was her toy again. We did get a really big laugh when poor Jack was sitting there minding his own business and I moved that lizard up behind him. When Jack turned and saw it he jumped 5 feet backward and at least a foot off the ground! The prankster and I laughed our butts off! Poor Jack! I’m sure he called us a few dirty names.

The prankster has been very helpful. I wish she could come live with us. She made many of my chores much easier by helping. I despise being disabled and not being able to do things like I used to. She’s so helpful and looks after us quite nicely. In fact, after I paid the bill at the restaurant with my debit card, the prankster made sure I had my receipt and my card back in my wallet before we left. Yep. Growing up.

Why, oh why must they grow up so quickly? I thought I was “getting old” when my own kids were growing up. Now the grandkids are making me ancient. Lol.

Today I Cried

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It might sound trivial to some, but today is the anniversary of my best buddy Fuzzy’s death. He was the best cat ever. I cried, as I always do when I think about him. He’s only been gone since February. I hope it gets easier to remember him.

It was 1998 and my kids and I were at my sister’s house for a visit. My sister’s kids and mine were outside playing and they found a litter of kittens. I don’t recall if there was a mother cat with them or not. The kittens were all adorable but one stood out from the rest.

He was a tiny, gray striped male with a huge personality! He played with his siblings but also by himself. He was the happiest little guy! We took him home and named him Fuzz.

Fuzz was spoiled rotten before too long, of course, but he was a good cat! He never had a problem using the litter box, he had manners when we were eating, and he didn’t claw the furniture. He was so cuddly and sweet at bedtime. He slept with me and there were many times over the years that I’d wake up to one of his paws stretched across my face.

When he was a young cat, he loved our Christmas trees! I always had to set up the tree without any decor until he got his climbing frenzy out of his system. It was hilarious watching him climb and go nuts. At that time he didn’t go outside so it was so new and fun for him!

Fuzz was very protective…of ME anyway. There were many times he jumped in between me and some critter in the yard! Sometimes it was an opossum and sometimes a skunk. That cat jumped between the critter and me before the critter could get too close. It was amazing!

He spent a lot of his time outside so he was very street-smart. It’s miraculous that he didn’t get caught by a coyote or hit by a car; but like I said, he was street-smart. I can count on one hand how many times he had to go to the vet because he was sick or hurt.

His last year with us, he began to show his age and he started losing weight. Then came his uncontrollable hunger, which is when I took him to the vet. Kidney Disease. That dreaded kidney disease. He wasn’t going to make it to his 19th Christmas. I knew it was just a matter of time at that point and gave my poor Fuzzy anything he wanted. Why not? Wouldn’t you want someone to give you anything you wanted if you were dying?

Fuzzy’s favorite foods were chicken, tuna, cheddar cheese, milk and vanilla ice cream. So, when he was hungry….which was almost all the time in the last few months of his life….I gave him chicken, tuna or cheddar cheese. I didn’t give him much of the other things because it wasn’t good for the litter box if you know what I mean.

Last February, my youngest cat caught a respiratory virus and I feared the others would get it too. They did. I spent 3 entire weeks going back and forth to the vet, cleaning and disinfecting, and trying to nurse all 6 cats back to health. I was not able to help my buddy, Fuzz. He was too sick and too weak. When he refused to eat, I tried to force him. He wasn’t having that at all. I knew I was going to have to take him for his last ride.

It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. I didn’t want him to suffer any more than he already had. We said goodbye to him at 4 pm on February 23, 2017. We took him home and buried him in the garden. He was 18.5 years old.

He would have been 19 years old this month. I have never had a cat live as long as Fuzz did. Now I have two 15-year-old cats that are really starting to show their age. It won’t be long now before I lose them. It really sucks when you lose a furbaby, but it’s even harder when they have been with you for so long! Fuzz grew up with my kids! The other two senior cats actually did too!

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