Ken Garlock
10-13-2006, 6:42 PM
This afternoon we had to take our 17 year, 8 month old Abyssinian cat, Bob, into the vet for the last time. He had been going down hill for some time. He had been a diabetic for nearly 5 years, and received his twice a day injections. He would even stand still while it did them.
For some reason this spring, his pancreas decided it has a mind of its own, kicking out doses of insulin. One evening about 11 PM he was meowing and thrashing on the floor. Not having any idea of what to do, we jumped in the car and went to the emergency animal hospital about 6 miles away. The vet was able to get him going again just in the nick of time.
Then about a month ago we had another round of insulin run awry. We made it to our regular vet that only treats cats. She gave him some dextrose in IV form. Once again he was OK. Every time Bob had a "crash" you could tell that he was just not as good as he had been before it.
In the past week, he had real problems walking. The arthritis was taking it toll. He would try to jump up on a lounge chair and fall off because his rear legs couldn't summon the strength to make it. On Wednesday he had an accident with a runny BM on the carpet, something that had never happened before. Yesterday he seamed to have a great deal of pain when walking. This morning I prepared his favorite food, Ocean White Fish, but he was not interested in eating. I also found that he didn't make it to his sand box twice during the night. Thankfully, it was on the tile floor where clean up was relatively easy.
With those events happening so close together, I decided that it was time for Bob to "cross over the rainbow bridge." I spent part of the morning digging a hole in our 'kitty cemetery' big enough to hold the oak box I had made after his first 'crash.' So at 3 PM we arrived at the vet, and the entire process took only about 5 minutes, first a tranquilizer followed by an overdose of barbiturates. He passed on without a whimper. By 4 PM we were back home, Bob was in his oak box, braded shut, and and in the hole I had dug earlier today.
We knew the end was near for Bob, be it today or next week. That prompted us to visit a vet recommended Abyssinian breeder. The lady runs a class operation, breeding Abbys and Bengal cats. We found a 7 week old Abby kitten, and a 16 week old cross between a Bengal and an Abby, accidents do happen. We will be picking the two up in about 2 weeks after they have gotten accustomed to each other. Without these two in the wings, it would have been really hard to accept Bob's passing.
OK, I have bored you with my story, but at least I feel a tiny bit better.
Thanks for listening.
For some reason this spring, his pancreas decided it has a mind of its own, kicking out doses of insulin. One evening about 11 PM he was meowing and thrashing on the floor. Not having any idea of what to do, we jumped in the car and went to the emergency animal hospital about 6 miles away. The vet was able to get him going again just in the nick of time.
Then about a month ago we had another round of insulin run awry. We made it to our regular vet that only treats cats. She gave him some dextrose in IV form. Once again he was OK. Every time Bob had a "crash" you could tell that he was just not as good as he had been before it.
In the past week, he had real problems walking. The arthritis was taking it toll. He would try to jump up on a lounge chair and fall off because his rear legs couldn't summon the strength to make it. On Wednesday he had an accident with a runny BM on the carpet, something that had never happened before. Yesterday he seamed to have a great deal of pain when walking. This morning I prepared his favorite food, Ocean White Fish, but he was not interested in eating. I also found that he didn't make it to his sand box twice during the night. Thankfully, it was on the tile floor where clean up was relatively easy.
With those events happening so close together, I decided that it was time for Bob to "cross over the rainbow bridge." I spent part of the morning digging a hole in our 'kitty cemetery' big enough to hold the oak box I had made after his first 'crash.' So at 3 PM we arrived at the vet, and the entire process took only about 5 minutes, first a tranquilizer followed by an overdose of barbiturates. He passed on without a whimper. By 4 PM we were back home, Bob was in his oak box, braded shut, and and in the hole I had dug earlier today.
We knew the end was near for Bob, be it today or next week. That prompted us to visit a vet recommended Abyssinian breeder. The lady runs a class operation, breeding Abbys and Bengal cats. We found a 7 week old Abby kitten, and a 16 week old cross between a Bengal and an Abby, accidents do happen. We will be picking the two up in about 2 weeks after they have gotten accustomed to each other. Without these two in the wings, it would have been really hard to accept Bob's passing.
OK, I have bored you with my story, but at least I feel a tiny bit better.
Thanks for listening.