Another One Bites the Dust

Well, it's been a pretty bad "cat month" for us... it's actually hard to believe! Our cats have been dropping like flies (or like our house plants in our first month of marriage)!! So Knick "passed" around 6 weeks ago (reference "Wendy and a Dead Cat"). Since then, our cat situation has only gone downhill, as we had a runaway a week and a half ago. Wilbur- one of our kittens, ran away after we forgot to put him in the garage one night. He is a sweet cat, so we wouldn't be surprised if he has been adopted by a nice family. We are thinking about putting up "lost cat" signs, but I haven't pushed for that. The lingering drive in the back of my mind to put up signs isn't because I particularly love the cat, but because I just spent $154.00 getting him spayed and having his first vaccines. It was only two months ago that I spent that much money on him, and at that rate he cost us around $75 a month+food and maintenance (I am the maintenance woman/litter cleaner-upper). So we'll see about trying to find him. He is a very good cat, and the kids miss him, so we'll keep you posted. That's not the end of the cat saga around here.
Jet, our cat of 9 years, started showing signs of illness 10 days ago. I hadn't noticed, but suddenly he was super skinny and laying around on our bathroom floor, drinking out of our toilet, and meowing like he felt really sick. It was a long, distressed sounding, extra-loud meow. So by the time I noticed, it was already too late... hey, with 5 kids to chase around, a deathly sick cat can go unnoticed rather easily. Jet has been such a great cat, that we decided he (of all cats) deserved a second chance, so I took him to the vet. We got in the evening before leaving for Thanksgiving. The vet said he was "jaundiced" (I thought that was just a baby term) and appeared to have kidney failure. What to do... I have never had to make medical decisions affecting the life or death of a cat! He recommended that I administer a subcutaneous I.V. daily to see if we could flush out his kidney (an I.V. for a cat??) and feed him with a syringe! This humored me slightly, but I also did have a soft spot for the cat, so figured I could handle it (I actually did it 3 times!). And the cost was quite minimal (especially considering the monthly rate- 10 years, 120 months- it came to .70/month) compared to the alternative- blood tests, antibiotics, etc. I was getting a little nervous in the vet's presence- I kept asking what the cost was for each of the different medical options he was offering. I was trying to guage his responses to my cost questions as I wasn't sure how sensitive he might be to my inquiries- I mean, we were talking about the life and death of an animal with a potential "animal rights" guy. "How much will that cost??" seemed a little shallow (maybe dangerous!) to be asking...especially multiple times...I think he was also (at least before I asked cost questions 4 times) trying to be sensitive to my (non-existant) emotional connection to the cat. I also wanted to show at least a little bit of emotion, since he knew we had had the cat for 9 1/2 years, lest he think that I was emotionally deficient. So after I asked 4 times "How much will that cost??" I balanced it out with, "Do you think he is in any pain?" I feigned a little sigh of relief.(No? good, because then he'll die peacefully since I am NOT spending all that money for the other treatments...)
The syringe feeding was a little messy- or a lot messy. I ended up with it all over my hands, squirted some on my pants, and got some on my shirt too. Anyway, we brought Jet in a pet carrier to San Jose with us over Thanksgiving, however, we left him there in my parents' backyard next to their beloved cat "Taffy" buried in the corner of their yard. Jet only made it a couple of days before he "passed". Another one bites the dust! The kids took it well- my mom even recorded a little "memorial service" they had in the backyard. They were all bouncing around during the service, so I think they will get over it! Kurt presided over the service, and the kids all put a shovelful of dirt over the grave... we're down to one cat! (The maintenance woman is okay with that!)