As regular readers know, my cat, Doofus, has diabetes. When it was first diagnosed, we put him on a special diet and insulin. His condition improved so dramatically that the vet took him off insulin to see if we could control the diabetes with diet alone. Alas, it was not to be. So, we put him back on the insulin. Unfortunately, I left the bottle out of the refrigerator one night, and, even though it should have been OK, I don't think it was.
So Cindy and I took Doofus back to the vet on Saturday to get his blood sugar tested. Dammit! It was almost at the same level as it was after we took him off the insulin. Also, the vet was a little worried about his kidney function. She started explaining options to me and said some of them might be expensive. So? Anyway, he got an all expense paid weekend at the vet's for more tests and treatment.
The vet told me, the expense could be three to four hundred dollars. What's a friend worth? A lot.
I've known Doofus for fourteen years. He was a stray who came in the cat door at my old house and decided to stay. I had two other cats at the time. Doofus, who was bigger than both, was a beta cat. He deferred to them. My friend, Cindy, called him the golden retriever of house cats, because he was so friendly. Since he was a stray, he was a good hunter. And, he liked to hunt at night. Many times I would be awakened by him coming up the basement stairs and meowing, with a mouth full of prey. Oh crap! What is he bringing me this time? It could be a frog, or lizard, or a field mouse. If it moved, he could catch it.
When I moved to GOC Central, he became an indoor cat. My subdivision is off a busy street and has a wooded lot across that street. Doofus, upon seeing the woods, thought that was his old home and off he went into the woods. Doofus is black. The street is busy. I could visualize him becoming roadkill when crossing the street at night. He didn't enjoy being kept inside for the first two to three weeks. He liked to let me know about that in the middle of the night.
About two months after my move, I got Ashley, a little cinnamon colored tabby as a companion for Doofus. Ashley has her own interesting story that I'll relate another time. Doofus wasn't really all that happy with Ashley when she first moved in, but Ashley just ignored his hissing, and kept rubbing up against him and he finally relented and they became friends. No one can resist Ashley.
Ashley looooooves Doofus! She woke me up real early Sunday morning with a lot of face rubbing. I could tell she missed Doofus. Even though she is very affectionate, she was even more so, because she missed Doofus and had to give me all of her attention.
The vet called me Sunday morning and told me Doofus is responding real well to treatment. Hopefully, I'll be able to bring him home.
Doofus is fifteen years old. He has only recently started looking like an old cat.
Only four months ago he weighed 16 pounds and not much of that was really fat. He now weighs less than 14 pounds and he is getting boney. He still likes to sit on my lap and purr.
The bad thing about having dogs and cats as pets is you know you will probably outlive them. And then there will come a time when they get old and you have to decide when living becomes a quality of life issue. You love a pet so much that you don't want to see him suffer, but you also don't want to lose him. You then have to ask yourself whether you are keeping him alive for you or for him.
I know that time is now approaching with Doofus. I'm hoping his kidneys are OK. I'm hoping that when I bring him home that the insulin will keep the diabetes under control. I'm hoping that he lives a lot longer. I don't want to lose a dear friend.
Sometimes life really sucks.
Posted by denny at January 12, 2003 09:00 PM Category: My Soft Side