Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

One of our downstairs neighbors, Heather, was in the lobby this morning with a cat in a carrier. She'd just brought him back from the vet, hoping he was a bit better, and we talked for a few minutes, but cattitude had things to do, and Heather had a job interview to prepare for. I told her that if she wanted to talk later in the day she should ring our bell because I'd be home.

The bell rang about 8 this evening, not long after Cattitude had arrived home. She clearly needed to talk. I invited her in. The cat had been much worse when she came back from a job interview in the afternoon, and she was worried about whether he'll live, and about whether his illness was her fault. (He's in septic shock, and the vet was not optimistic.)

I sat her down and made her tea, which seemed to help. We talked a while, about that cat and cats in general--both of the ones she has now were rescues, this one thrown out on the street by his people after they had a baby, the other rescued by the police after some sicko hanged it over traffic. But when she lived in Manchester she had two gorgeous purebred Burmese, and she told us about Dickens, who was a part-time pub cat until she found out why he was so tired by the time she got home from work in the evenings (he not only ate lunch at the pub, he drank the slops of unfinished beer). A charming, clever animal.

I offered to show her Artemis, who was in her usual spot on the bed. Much to my surprise, she didn't duck under the bed when Heather came in, and even let Heather pet her. The last person to charm Artemis that quickly or thoroughly was volund, at least a decade ago.

She left after a while, better for tea and conversation, and I made us dinner. Lunch, cakelings, dinner, a resume sent out, and a good deed for a neighbor. A productive afternoon and evening, I think.

Artemis just killed another mouse. As far as we can tell--it was still warm when cattitude found it--she successfully hunted while we were home, without our noticing. Probably while we were drowsing through a Scrabble game. just as Cattitude was settling down to eat some ham stew, which would explain why she both wanted and felt entitled to large amounts of ham. Good thing we gave them to her, and let her lick the bowl.

Our cat killed a mouse overnight.

Our seventeen-year-old, somewhat slow and arthritic cat, is still fast enough to do all her jobs in the home. She had been acting as though she saw a mouse, but we hadn't seen or heard the rodent. Any doubts we had have been removed by the evidence: one dead mouse on the living room floor.

We have rewarded her with sour cream, and will make a point of cooking something she likes for supper tonight.

cattitude and I took Artemis to the vet this afternoon, for her regular semi-annual checkup and annual shots.

She's gotten older and slower. I had no trouble getting her into the carrier, and she didn't want to come out when we opened it in the examining room. (When she was younger she'd explore the whole room.) She's 17; slower is only to be expected.

Artemis has put on some weight, which is a Good Sign in a cat with kidney disease. The urine sample shows that her kidneys are having to work harder than the last time we checked, but they're still working. Dr. Luckow encouraged us to give her a few more tidbits, along with the special prescription catfood she's getting, so we happily gave her a larger share of the scallops Newburgh that Cattitude cooked for dinner tonight. The theory here seems to be that elderly people, including elderly cats, should be indulged a bit. He declined to take a blood sample, because there's nothing specific to test for and she wouldn't appreciate having blood drawn. Her claws are in good shape, because she's sharpening them on the couch again (it was second-hand when we got it in 1990, and I concluded after the last visit that she needs to sharpen her claws more than I need to preserve the fabric on that arm of the couch).

Artemis finished her antibiotics a couple of days ago, so we got a urine sample and took it to the vet yesterday.

cattitude talked to the vet this morning. The good news is, there's no more protein in her urine, so no more antibiotics. The bad news is that the kidney problem is "chronic, irreversible, and untreatable": at some point, she will die of it. She's 16, and this isn't an "n months to live" situation, but it's still not good. What we're supposed to do is take her to the vet every six months, from now on, instead of every year; and keep her on the special KD catfood and minimal or no other treats.

She seems fine and happy, jumps onto laps and all that. Nonetheless, we've had better days.

We took the vet a feline urine sample, and he has now informed us that there is, in fact, something wrong with her kidneys. The good news is that he found white blood cells, which implies some kind of probably low-grade infection. This is good news because we can help, relatively easily. She's going to get a month of antibiotics, which I just picked up (my second trip to the vet's office today). I suspect that Artemis won't like this, and therefore neither will we: but oral amoxycillin twice a day for a month is easier, more comfortable (I suspect), and less expensive than most possibilities. She'll also be getting special food, but that has to be ordered so we won't have it for a couple of days.