Preparing to say goodbye

After spending the better part of two weeks gravely ill, it is becoming more apparent that we need to say our "goodbyes" and our "we'll miss you"s to our Kitten. Kitten wasn't looking too good at the start of last week and so I felt like I needed to take him to the vet. He had had diarrhea for a few days, became lethargic, and seemed to have lost quite a bit of weight. When I took him in, the vet said he was very dehydrated, underweight, severely anemic and had the body of a 14 year old cat. Being that Kitten is only 13 months old, this wasn't a good sign.  The vet also felt a large mass in his stomach. I can't remember if I was surprised by all the findings, but needless to say the vet saw only a small chance for recovery. I loaded up on prescriptions for the cat and wondered how I was going to get all these pills down a cat's throat by myself. Chad was out of town and would be for the next two weeks. 

I ended up making three trips to the vet over the course of a week and emptied the wallet about as much as I can allow for a pet. Anyway, after all this, the vet seems to think Kitten has two things wrong with him. One being a foreign object in his gut. I can't imagine what the cat got into, but despite our best efforts, it doesn't seem to want to come out. The other problem is some type of blood parasite. It's unclear when the cat became infected, but this is what's causing the severe anemia. Even with all the medication, special food and some extra TLC, little Kitten is just not getting better. He stopped eating and drinking two days ago so it's just a matter of time now. Through it all I was most worried about how Sarah and our other cat, Patti would react. Both seem surprisingly unaffected though. I spoke with Sarah this morning about the possibility of her beloved Kitten passing away. She turned to me and said, "It's okay if Kitten dies. We'll just go and buy a new cat!" Kitten has also been such a good companion for our other cat, Patti. I thought Patti would sense that Kitten was sick and want to stay by him throughout it all. Instead she obsessively paces by the food dish waiting for the wet prescription food that's meant for Kitten. This could mean one of two things. Either Patti's appetite is bigger than her heart or she does what all other women do when they're feeling sad or stressed.........she eats!  

Drooping ears due to dehydration and malnutrition