Sick Kitty ... Again

Got back to our home in Texas on Tuesday night. I wasn't ready to come home but the kitty is sick. We don't know what is wrong with him this time, but I suspect he has developed diabetes. It started about a week ago while my SO was working up in Colorado. Kitty stopped eating. He seemed to be OK otherwise, just wouldn't eat at all. I went to the store to get different food, and he ate that with relish, once and no more. I thought maybe he was homesick so I took him outside. He enjoyed going out but it did not improve his appetite. If he was not outside, he was sleeping in the chair he has claimed as his. If he was outside on the deck he was sleeping. And finally just outside under the trees, he was sleeping. A hawk swooped down to check him out, and that was the last time I let him sleep beneath the trees. He already knew he was sick. It took me a little while longer.

So now we are home, and taking him to his vet this morning at 8:00. I've been with him all night. Slept upstairs in the loft room with him. He seemed to appreciate that, but at 4:15 I awoke and he was gone. There was a wet spot where he had been sleeping. I think he drooled. It neither looked nor smelled like anything else. I came downstairs and found him here, sleeping on my house slippers. I took him onto the couch with me for a while. He is as light as a feather. I think he's lost about three pounds. He doesn't seem to be suffering but he does act confused. The dog frightens him; it's usually the other way around. He doesn't recognize my SO, and doesn't want to play. When I hold him he seems to search my face and his eyes are kind of wild. It is breaking my heart to see him this way, lethargic and weak.

Fourteen isn't so old for a coddled kitty. My hopes are that this is something we can treat, something that won't compromise his quality of life too much. It was just over a year ago we successfully battled back toxoplasmosis. I'm praying that this will be something we can also defeat. But if it's not, I know that I will feel a deep loss and loneliness. I have loved this cat dearly for 14 years and he has loved me back. We are best friends. We have been through a lot together. He has always been there for me. I will never have another like him, another one as special. It will be hard. I'm trying to prepare myself but that isn't easy either. I have already shed a lot of tears. Yes, I admit it: I get too close to my animals. I can't help it. They give add such joy to m life.

Onward ....