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Though I could not remember taking them, I knew from downloading my camera that I’d captured a range of photos on the way home from Albany last Wednesday, yet when I wished to post them yesterday, I was surprised to find they were not nearly as numerous as I’d thought.
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However, I’d not spent much time looking at them and maybe Brain hadn’t quite recovered yet.
Later on, after I’d launched the post, of course…
How, exactly, is it that random photos disappear themselves temporarily? You’ve seen me complain of this before.
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It must be something I do, or fail to do, but I’m danged if I can figure it out.
No matter.
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Spring is the time for annual vet visits and we had the first of those last Thursday.
It’s always stressful.
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Aging cats, like aging people, develop ailments, so that is the main concern.
But before you get to that, there’s the capture!
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If the cat in question is Little Man, strategic planning is required.
The key to it is keeping ourselves calm. Cats sense your “taking cat to the vet” anxiety. They know exactly what it is you are wound up about.
Any other sort of drama that stresses you out – they couldn’t care less.
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Though I must admit that sometimes when I’m at a very low ebb Willow comes to sit beside me, which is not her normal behaviour.
She arrives quietly as if to check on me.
It is very comforting.
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Lily has always been particularly good at mind-reading, whether I’m thinking of a vet visit or to administer a pill.
She seems to read the thought the moment it drops into my head and by the time I’ve processed it – she is nowhere to be found.
But Lily was not a candidate that day. We’ll worry about her tomorrow when she is having a scan. A recent urinary tract infection cleared up but there was a trace of blood in her last specimen which led to a debate about further diagnostic attempts.
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Diagnostic procedures are stressful and in older cats treatment may be equally so, or even life-threatening if it involves surgery.
In Lily’s case I opted for the scan as it could reveal something that could be helped with diet or medication and of course we can’t let her suffer unnecessarily.
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Lily will grumble at being carted off for the scan. She has the most expressive protests I’ve ever heard out of a cat.
But she is very forgiving.
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Last week’s visits were for Blackie, Willow and Sophia.
We’d not quite got around to the pre-roundup panic when the phone rang. It was the clinic to say they’d had a cancellation – could we come half an hour earlier?
So we closed doors quickly to restrict flight options, enclosed the girls and we were off before they had time to consider resistance.
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Of course they cried pitifully all the way there.
Luckily it’s a journey of only 7 minutes.
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First on the table was sweet Sophia.
She is some 18 years old and more or less stone deaf which is probably a mercy as noises used to frighten her terribly.
We think she feels vibrations and her sight is fine but she has failing kidneys and she has become very thin.
We’ve lost several cats to kidney disease. There’s nothing to be done for Sophia but keep her comfortable and pain-free.
And treasure the days that remain.
For now, she is fine.
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Blackie is much younger. She and Willow are about 10, but Blackie is positive for feline leukemia. She has what was termed a soft positive, which the vet felt indicated that she had been exposed without becoming fully infected.
At least that’s how we understood it.
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Stray cats that are captured for neutering are tested for leukemia and if they are positive, they are euthanised unless they can be quarantined at a sanctuary like Best Friends.
We knew Blackie had been spayed and therefore assumed she was clear when she wandered in to join us. Her diagnosis was a shock.
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The cat’s vaccines were always up-to-date. As long as we ensure this remains the case, we were told everyone should be fine.
Knowing that she is vulnerable, we keep a close eye on Blackie and she has been healthy, but lately she has lost weight.
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Because Blackie was inclined to be plump and obesity is very bad for cats, I try to limit the treats she gets. So is her weight loss a result? It’s a little more than I would expect and the doctor told us that felv cats don’t tend to live beyond 10.
But she checked out well that day and seems fine.
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Willow is epileptic which was very alarming until she was diagnosed. She volunteers to take her medication twice a day, something I did not train her to do.
I do reward her with a few treats but try to limit them.
The problem is – other cats get offered snacks which they do not necessarily consume.
Other cats need extra nourishment, so it must be made available.
So, Willow has gained a little, but she is still a healthy weight and her check-up was good.
Overall it went well.
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Muffin is likely our oldest cat and she is our greatest concern. One day recently she refused food and looked downcast. As she is already so frail, we feared it was a bad sign, but she is inclined to hairballs and loss of appetite.
Sure enough, the following day she reverted to demanding meals every two hours.
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Our animal companions leave us much too soon and those last days are so precious. I’ve spent too much time anguishing when I should just be treasuring those moments.
So that’s what I try to do now.
Thank you, Carolyn, for your photographic nature post. I had a sad few weeks because the rescue dog my daughter saved died of kidney problems, and as he was her beloved companion, she is grieving. I know that grief is a price for love, but it will be a long time, if ever, when she will be able to speak about him without crying. That is life.
Joanna
That is so sad. I am sorry Joanna, for your daughter. Anyone who has loved animals knows that pain and some animals really get to you.
May the good results continue!
The annual vet visits… That’s always a very stressful experience for the humans and the cats. I was lucky that Mr. Bowie enjoyed the car rides (at least twice every month) and was always relaxed during the tests. Jimi hated the car rides and the vet visits. But we always take good care of our beloved furry friends, in good and bad times.
Your Vet bills must be the major expenditure in your life. I hope the Vet appreciates your custom.
Do you put photos in folders? I always add new photos from the memory card to a folder, and give it a name and date. Then I save that folder to ‘My Pictures’ and it is easy to find later. (I have a Windows PC though, not Apple)
You can also get a Free Account on Flickr, which is great for storing a few hundred photos before you have to pay any subscription. And they are stored in the order you added them to Flickr, easy to retrieve from ‘My Photostream’, and include in blog posts by cutting/pasting the url of the photo.
Best wishes, Pete.
I have an old Flickr account. Maybe I should start using it again. My pc has myphotos and I do have files but I’ll admit I often forget to tidy new pictures into them. I should spend a day straightening things out but I never seem to get around to it. Need to sort our a lot of other stuff too…