PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR SICK KITTY......... 


Our dear Cecil Kitty is a sick little cat and needs your prayers.

Cecil has always been an "I'll meet you on my terms" kind of cat, coming and going as he pleased. Towards the end of last week, (my) Mister noticed that he had lost a lot of weight and he began to hide behind the dryer. When we took him to the Vet he had lost four pounds. While this would be a drop in the bucket on me, for a cat it is significant. The vet sent us home with instructions to hand feed him and get a urine on him as she could find nothing wrong. I did point out that he had some kind of a wound on his neck, and when she looked at it she complimented me on the fact that I had shaved the area so it wouldn't get infected while healing. Problem was I had not touched his neck. By the time we noticed it, it was healing and the fur was growing back. This could only mean that someone had caught him and deliberately shaved him. How sick is that? We are wondering if the weight loss was brought on by his throat being too sore to swallow.

I will spare you the full details, but after a day of trying to get him to pee in a liter pan filled with foreign material that would not absorb the pee, we finally gave up. As soon as we put the regular liter down he made a bee-line for the pan and my youngest was able to catch it mid-streem and get the needed sample. Doesn't that remind you of the indignities we have all had to endure at the hands of the medical community? Poor thing.

At his check up last night, we discovered he has lost another pound, has some liver abnormalities (which could simply be from his decreased eating or more serious), and an infection. Now the poor thing has to have antibiotics shoved down his throat twice a day.

Since there is still no clear cut diagnosis as to what is wrong, the vet was giving us further options. I explained to her that we are not the kind of family that believes in the lastest medical advancements for pets. Does this make us some kind of monsters? When it comes to my own life, I am a firm believer of quality not quantity, and feel the same about my pets. Right now Cecil is not the free roaming cat that is his nature. If we let him roam, he hides ( he spenp all day yesterday under the freezer until my youngest came home and spotted some of his fur)and we can't find him to care for him. For this reason we have to trap him in a bedroom. When I go in to care for him, I don't get the sense that he is any great pain, but he is stressed and skitish, his little eyes begging me not to mess with him because he knows he can't get away.

So is it better to put him through a battery of tests to MAYBE find a problem that can be medically fixed? Or is it better to make him comfortable and let him live the rest of his life as he chooses, even if it is hiding away? I am not sure if there is one right answer to this question. Just as each of us should be able to decide how the end of our life is written, we as pet owners should be able to assist our pets in the way we feel is best for their temperment and nature, without guilt or remorse. What do you think?