Update 346pm: He ate again. Just a little bit, but its exciting.

I have had 2 cats for almost 15 years. Sean and Duffy.

Sean has had a bad heart murmur all his life and while he didn’t have many obvious symptoms, every time he saw the vet they would tell me “omg worst heart murmur EVAR dead in 6 weeks poor sad kitty”. Then he wouldn’t die. That’s been going on for 10 years.

So, while he hasn’t been actively dying, I have been prepped for it for years. He would be the first one to die, despite being the youngest of the two.

Duffy, on the other hand, has always been healthy as a horse. The older, more calm one. Always came home when it was evening “wetfood time”. Very reliable.

Duffy didn’t come home about 6 weeks ago. He vanished. Didn’t turn up at the shelter, at the morgue, or from any of the street and real/electronic bulletins I left everywhere, Just gone. It really fucked me up because I hadn’t prepped myself for him dying. Sean figured it out about 3 days later and stayed up all night crying. It was really sad. His best friend and lifelong buddy was gone.

Sean got pretty well over it pretty quickly. He didn’t seem terribly guilty over having me all to himself. Finally, after 13 years he could sleep on my chest all night long without the other one horning in on that action. I was a bit worried that he would get jacked up over it, but didn’t have much time to ponder it as I was leaving on my big European Vacation.

Sure enough as soon as I left, he got depressed and sick. Mom and gram were here and they took care of him, and got him to the vet and whatnot. He’s been on all sorts of meds and things but not much is helping. No food or water for a week yadda yadda.

I picked up an IV kit at the vet today to start giving him fluids myself, but by the time I got home I had more or less decided that I wasn’t going to poke him with a needle again. I’ve been trying to divine whether or not he wants to get better or if he’s tired and done and ready to go. I’m not the sort of person to force food and fluids and other invasive shit on a cat (or person) if they are truly done. I wish he could tell me what he wants. Fair warning to everyone: If I don’t eat for a couple of days, am in a coma, or have gotten knocked in the head and am not my usually witty self please finish the job as quickly as possible. Preferable something with no pain, but if it’s fast whatever you come up with will be fine.

… but today I tricked him into eating. I mixed up some cat nip into some food and got him to eat about 5 tablespoons. Go me. Then all by himself he hit the water dish. Twice. Go Sean.

He’s not outta the woods yet, but this seems encouraging.