A Difficult Thing to Post

Last month we lost our dear old kitty, Wizzard. She had been blind for several years, and pretty much confined herself to our bathroom where she felt safe and had her bed in the bottom of the closet. She was 16 years old and had slowly declined over a period of months. when she quit eating, we made the tough decision. It was sad, but expected.

Yesderday our 6 year-old Robbie also passed on. He had fallen from the windowsill in the kitchen a few months ago. We wondered at the time if he had a seizure, since he was shaking all over and had a hard time walking. The vet gave him medication for it but the phenobarb didn't seem to help. Then he switched him to prednisone and that seem to make a difference.

Still over the month, he had episodes, which I attributed to pain in his back or leg as a result of the fall. He would be walking along normally when he would suddenly stop and hunker down and seem kind of oblivious to his surroundings. Then it would pass and he would go on. Some days he seemed OK, others, especially when the weather was damp and rainy, he'd have several of these 'episodes' a day. The past few days have been dreary so he had not been doing as well.

He was lying on an old trunk with a cushion on it and when he tried to get down, he fell again. Once again he seemed distressed and trembling, but was able after a few minutes to walk out to a favorite spot beside the woodstove. I called the vet right away and by the time I got off the phone, he was lying on his side, hyperventilating, and drooling. We rushed him to the vets, but there was really nothing she could do. He had gone into shock. I didn;'t want him to experience any more pain than he had already goning through, so had him put down.

The vet said that without extensive testing she had no way of knowing how to treat him and that he would not have survived long enough to go through all that. Not to mention the stress that would have been torture for him! She guessed that a tumor might have been involved.

Anyway, I am devastated and heartbroken! Zip and the three remaining kitties have been a great comfort.