I ask the cat-goddess Bubastis...

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2005/10/06 08:45 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2005/10/06/477786.aspx

Those of you who read this blog may have been following her story. But, in the true spirit of Seattle weather predictions, her passing that was judged to be little more than 30 days from the diagnosis actually was delayed for nearly seven months.

At first over those months, she was actually gaining weight (all of that Fancy Feast, no doubt!), at one point making it up to what was probably a lifetime high of 10 pounds. But then even as she ate a lot, she started losing weight. And by the end she would still walk up to get the food but would not even be able to finish those small cans. Her weight eventually made it as far down as 4 pounds.

When I got home, she had one pupil dilated and one fully contracted, but neither reacted to light. Her temperature was down and although you could see she was breathing she had some reflex actions that indicated she as struggling for oxygen -- because blood was probably just not circulating well, at all.

I took her to the vet right away (they were open until 9pm), but it really was too late. At some point on her last day she must have thrown several clots and had a stroke, with multiple areas affected. If it were not Chelsea, I probably would have been fascinated about the medical aspects of it. As it was, I had a bit too much on my mind. After all, it was time to say goodbye.

But as Dr. Cottrille (Dr. Emery had gone for the day) looked for a vein it was clear that her blood pressure was so slow than injection would probably be ineffectual. The only way to euthanize would be to inject it directly into the liver.

Bracing me for the worst, she warned me that it could take up to 20 minutes for it to act. But seconds later both pupils were fully dilated, and she was gone.

So my plea to the cat-goddess Bubastis? Well, it would be that my dearest Chelsea Antoinette can find happiness now. Bog knows that the delightful spirit of a cat who did no wrong deserves that much....

Sorry to hear about your loss. Pets are very important in our lives, since they are kinder to us than most people.

Michael,

I'm saddened to hear about Chelsea. Buck is correct, pets are very important in our lives.

Mike

Michael,
I am very sorry for your loss.

My 12 year old beagle went through a similar process of not eating. My wife ended up cooking him a pot roast as that was all he would eat. While I was at the Summit she had to take him to the vet for his final visit. I found out about it on Sunday when we finally caught up. I had expected it but it was still very hard to hear.

Take care,
Joe

Sad news :-(

This is one of the reasons why I don't want a pet: if everything goes well, we outlive them :-(

My first cat was a black one found on Halloween. We named him Basti, as some male form of the Egyptian cat goddess' name.

A lot of very nice thoughts, thank you all....

Mihai -- I once said this and somebody pointed out to me that one day qw would be old enough that they might outlive us, which is actually worse....

I'm sad to hear about Chelsea but I would like to point out to Mihai - if everything goes well we will outlive everyone and everything we like. But that's not the reason not to have feelings towards others. The time spent together, no matter how short, is well worth the pain at the end.

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