Say goodbye to Baby-head

I guess I should have figured that if I overfed my cats for close to 10 years, their health would suffer sooner or later. (See previous post: “Baby-head and brother make ‘lifestyle change,'” Jan. 14, 2013)

It was, in fact, sooner than I expected. At age 10, Jem (Baby-head’s brother) began losing weight and was diagnosed with diabetes. I began giving him insulin twice a day and feeding him special $$$$ food. He’s back in fine form, neither missing a meal nor failing to remind me when the litter box needs routine maintenance.

Baby-head’s (Scout’s) health problem was more of a mystery, at first. My vet thought she had a heart problem, but after an $$$$ echocardiogram did not indicate a problem with her heart, she was diagnosed high blood pressure that was causing kidney failure.

I gave her medication to lower her blood pressure, but her kidneys just couldn’t keep up. Her quality of life sucked, and, after one course of fluids, I decided that simply keeping her alive wasn’t an acceptable option. She seemed okay for about a month or so, but continued to lose weight, became dehydrated and got weaker. She sometimes had difficulty walking or holding up her head.

It wasn’t an easy decision. I called the vet and took her in later that day to have her “put down.” Here I was, 60 years old and a cat owner since age 13, and I had never taken a cat to the vet to be euthanized.

When I got to the vet’s office, her assistant told me that she thought Scout had a stroke, too. The vet and her assistant were compassionate and efficient in performing the procedure. It was very sad — more so than I thought it would be. I petted her until I felt her body begin to grow cold. I cried a little.

I took her body to my friends’ house and buried her in their pet cemetery.

She was without a doubt the sweetest-natured cat I ever owned.

Jem seems to know she is gone, but doesn’t seem to be grieving. I think he’ll be fine as long as he gets to eat her food as well as his. And now that he no longer has a sister to beat up on, he has become almost as sweet-natured as she was.

Goodbye, Scout. Sweet dreams.