Sad times

Dear friends,

This is Phoebe telling you all some sad news. Monica has gone on to Rainbow Bridge. She was peacefully helped to go there on Friday morning after becoming really sick over just the last week.

We all noticed that Monica was not hanging out with us very much on Tuesday. She was spending more time than usual lounging on Tracy and Denis' bed instead of watching TV. Tracy suspected that something was wrong when Monica wouldn't even chase our lazer light toy, cause that is her favoritest toy of all. On Wednesday, Denis took her to the V.E.T. and they found she had lost 2 lbs in just a month. She was dehydrated, so they gave her some subQ fluids and drew some blood. That evening, we hoped that she would perk up like I did when I got fluids when I was sick. But she didn't really perk up. She was very tired and didn't eat much that evening.

Thursday morning, Denis got the report from the V.E.T. that Monica's kidney labs were very bad. In his experience, a kitty with labs as bad as hers do not respond to treatment very well, so it was not much of an option to try to do agressive treatment. Besides, Monica was never a very good patient, and Tracy thinks that she would not have been very happy to get pills and fluids, even more unhappy than I was when I was sick. So Thursday evening, we all spent some very nice quiet time together. Tracy and Denis helped Monica get a drink from the tub faucet like she liked as often as she wanted and we all slept in the big bed with them that night.

They took her to Rainbow Bridge at 8 AM on Friday, so that she wouldn't have to spend all day feeling badly, especially with Denis and Tracy at work and not home to help her.

Monica was a very good sister and kept our house in good order. Last night, Tracy and I read our whole entire blog and remembered all our happy times over the last two years. Today, I am staying near Tracy and purring for her extra hard to keep her company. Joey and I will have to sort out how the responsibilities that Monica carried will be divided between us two. We will do our best to keep things in order around here.

Good bye Monica.

Check up

Dear Pablo and all my friends,

I know that you all remember how very sick that I was a few months ago and have wondered and asked about my health since. Well, the other day, Tracy called my V-E-T to get a refill of my medicine and the V-E-T lady wanted to see me again. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to get put into a prisoner box and taken to THAT place.

Monica tried to comfort me while I was waiting. But then Joey came along to pester me.

Anyway, we went in the moving machine and the people took my blood and the V-E-T lady poked me, squeezed me and listened to me. She told Tracy that when she got my blood results back she would call to let us know if I am actually better. None of us were sure what we would find out. I am feeling much better now, but you never know if my liver is really all better or not.

Well, much to everycat's relief, my bloodwork came back completely normal! All of the numbers were in the right places - the kidney ones and the liver ones. Even the sugar one was good in spite of me taking my steroid pills. I asked Tracy if that means I can stop taking my pills. She said, "no, I can NEVER stop taking my pills again." We still don't know why I got sick in the first place, but it seems to be related to my being off my steroid pills. Oh bother!

From Tracy: really it was so funny - Phoebe has gained so much weight back that the vet tech came in three times to be sure that it was Phoebe I had brought and not Monica. I think, and the vet agrees, that Phoebe's illness was a combination of some sort of physiological process like an infection and the stress of having Joey introduced into the house. In the absence of the steroid medication, something got out of hand for sure. And then when she stopped eating, the liver just went down hill. It is amazing now to remember how skinny she was and it wasn't that long ago... She's more playful now as well and Joey and her seem to have reached some sort of agreement. She secretly likes to play with him and will initiate it at times.