Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

You may remember when I talked about my cat Zeke, whom I inherited from my grandmother a few years ago and died from acute kidney failure.

Or when I talked about losing Gus late last January, after a long bout of illness.

Or even back in July when I mentioned losing Lilly, and I mentioned that I was concerned that Maddie wouldn’t get over losing all her friends so close together.

Saturday morning I woke up to see that Maddie was crouched in the meatloaf position. She’s gotten terribly skinny lately, down to 4 pounds from her fighting weight of 8. I’ve been giving her medication for hyperthyroidism for the past few months, but it hasn’t seemed to stop the weight loss.

Blood tests showed kidney failure. Cat number four in the same number of years. She stayed at the vet on an IV until yesterday. She did not eat. They syringe-fed her, and she vomited it back up. She urinated on herself. The vet does not have much hope for her. X-rays show a large amount of kidney stones on both sides, which probably killed the kidneys. She came home yesterday to see if I could get her to eat in a more comfortable environment. I haven’t had much luck. A little chicken broth, some more syringe-fed food. So far she has kept it down, but I’m concerned about prolonging a life that is painful. Max is very upset and can’t understand why his friend won’t play with him anymore. I told the children that Maddie may go to heaven to be with Gus and Lilly and they started crying. “I don’t want Maddie to go. I like Maddie!”

I like her, too.

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