He came into my life even years ago as a four year old adopted from a rescue. He was a happy purring bundle of fur whose greatest joy in life was to have someone pet him. He would look you in the eyes and knead his paws gently into his soft bed. The expression on his face could not be mistaken for anything but a smile of love and deep content. I spent time with the BooBoo cat, but it was time spent between other things. Things like working and taking care of the other necessitities of life. Looking back, I wish it had been more.
I didn't notice at first how he didn't always get up from his bed in the morning to greet me anymore as I rushed to get ready for work and that he didn't want to play much. It happened gradually at first, and then suddenly.
Then one day, I noticed his appetite was decreased when I fed the canned food, which was his second greatest pleasure in life next to being pet. At first, I just thought he was not hungry or eating more of the dry food I leave down for them. By the weekend, I was getting worried as it seemed to be slowly getting worse and he looked like he was losing weight.
I made an appointment for him to see the vet Wednesday and left him there the whole day for blood tests and urinary tests. The vet didn’t think it was too serious and gave me baytril for possible urinary infection. She also said his kidney function was in decline and wanted him to go on the kidney diet.
By Friday, he was getting worse. I brought him to the vet again and another vet again said she didn’t think it was too serious, but they gave him fluids and a shot of antibiotics because he had a slight fever. They wanted me to leave him there over the weekend, but no one is there except twice a day for feedings so I said no. They gave me a kit and showed me how to administer under the skin fluids once a day, but that still did not address the fact that he was not eating much at that point.
By Friday evening, he was looking worse and felt hot when I picked him up and lethargic. I brought him to the emergency clinic in Latham and he had a fever of 105. They admitted him and put him on an IV. They wanted to do a bunch of tests and presented me with a $2000 estimate. I told them wait til morning to get the tests from the other vet. Sunday, they told me he had been eating normally for 12 hours and had me take him home. Once home, he again lapsed into a cycle of minimal eating.
Tuesday morning I took him to another vet because my vet was not in. The new vet did a full blood work up and told me that the cat was extremely weak and by the looks of his blood tests, both his red and white counts were extremely low and he did not see him producing new red blood cells. He believed the cat to have bone marrow cancer. He said I could take him to the emergency clinic for a blood transfusion, but that it would be costly, and based on the fact that the cat was not creating new blood cells, that once the new blood wore out in a week, we would be back in the same boat. He recommended that we put him to sleep. I held him on my lap while the sedative kicked in, petting him gently and telling him what a good cat he was. I stayed until his hearth stopped beating and cried all the way home.
I learned a lot from The BooBoo Cat. He loved life and took great joy in the smallest of things. He was such a loving and grateful cat. Even as he was sick with a fever of 104 with an IV taped to his shaved arm, he tried to purr and head butt the vet, who would save his life, at least for a few more days. That night, it killed me to leave him there with strangers, not knowing if I'd ever seen him again. I told him as best I could that I was not abandoning him, and I believe in my heart that he understood.
Good bye, my friend. I hope to see you again someday.