This is Abbie. Also known occasionally as Doodlebot, Bearcat and Scuttlebutt. She is one of our two cats that we have had the pleasure to hang out with for the past 6 years. She is a friendly, beautiful, loud and expressive kitty that I dare you not to fall in love with. She loves to lay on the kitchen table, soaking up the sunshine and waiting for someone to walk by so she can get their attention with a sharp "MREOW!". We always know when it's breakfast time or her water is low, she is not afraid to scold us. She likes belly rubs, drinking from faucets and sleeping on top of you if you fall asleep on the couch. In short, she is lovely.
Recently we found out that Abbie has stage 4 kidney disease. A gut wrenching discovery that left me bawling the latter half of last week. The more information we were given, the more freaked out we became. There is no way we can make her kidneys better. Our best possible outcome is to keep them stabilized while ensuring she is getting all the nutrients she needs through diet, medication and fluid injections. My first thought of course was 'our kitty is gonna die'. Cue the sobbing. Followed by 'can we really shove a needle into our baby everyday?!?!' The inevitable 'can we afford all the meds she needs? What will her quality of life be like? What are we supposed to do?'. Both of our brains were mush, our thoughts ricocheting around like a bouncy ball in a small room. We needed perspective.
Naturally I called my Mum. I may be an independent, soon to be 29-year-old adult, but when shit hits the fan, I still turn to my Mother to give me advice. She is the best. After talking through our information and emotion overload, we broke everything down into simple options. Do nothing and watch her fade away - hell no. Put her down - not without a fight. Suck it up, try the treatment for a month, see how she does and revisit everything then - oh, we can totally do that. Once a choice had been made, it went a long way towards calming both of us down.
On Saturday, our wonderful new mobile vet came over with all the food, meds, fluids and needles we will need to help our sick kitty. We were now officially face to face with reality. She walked us through the fluid injections and how everything will work. It didn't seem too bad. Enter Sunday. Our first 3 attempts at the injection did not work. Every time we tried and failed we got a little bit more stressed. Eventually we managed to get it done, but it was not easy. Monday we got a good pep talk from the vet. It took only two tries that day. Tuesday we managed in one, despite a wriggling unhappy kitty. Our hope is that, as all three of us get more comfortable, the whole thing will become a relatively smooth routine. We also hope that all this will help her and as long as it does, we will continue with it.
Everyone has different levels of emotions when it comes to animal friends. Some will get where I'm coming from. Some may cut their losses quickly to avoid any emotional or financial strain. Some may wonder why I am so torn up inside over the whole situation. Some may not even care. They may not get why I am willing to spend so much time and money on a cat. I guess if you don't understand you've never really had the love and companionship of an animal. Our cats are our babies, they are just as much a part of the family as our human relatives. The girls have been with us through thick and thin. As long as Abbie's quality of life is still good, I could never throw in the towel on such a wonderful kitty.
So we shall battle on and hope for the best. Really it's all we can do. Now if you'll excuse me I have kitties to go cuddle.
G.
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