A short foster diary

 

This is a Rosemary Remembrance Cake (from Feast by Nigella Lawson).

It is quite possibly the most soothing and comforting companion to commemorations ever.

And the following is a little diary I kept 2 years ago:

We have a new cat coming to stay with us. A young adult cat, called something like Mystique or Mystic, very scrawny, very ill, hasn't eaten in two weeks, they've done many tests, but everything comes back clean, probably just needs some TLC - they told us.

Day 1 (Friday, 31/01/2020)

Mystery (her actual name) arrived between 5-6pm. There'd been a development, apparently. They had run some more tests and it turns out she has kidney failure. So, she will need to take half of this tablet a day and half of that one (the vet has halved those for you already). And she's on strict RENAL food, and, oh yes, this here is an IV, just in case she takes a turn for the worse and needs to be taken to the vets with the drip in her vein. Oh. Right.

As soon as her delivery party had released her from the carrier, Mystery began meowing, and as soon as I had opened the first pouch of her special food, she tried to eat it pretty much straight out of the bag. A promising start. And she's drinking water with abandon.

She looks like a cartoon cat, you know, the skin-and-bones homeless one, a true cliché of an alley cat. The hairs on her hind legs seem wet, as though she'd just clambered out of a nasty puddle.

She's very friendly and can't get enough of our laps. She's also very dirty, we noticed. There seems to be some kind of substance all over her coat, and her paws are somewhere between beige and brown, as opposed to the classic white of a classic tuxedo cat (which she most definitely is underneath the filth). She also has a lot of dandruff and quite a few hairless spots on her body, with backs of her hind legs having suffered the most.

The first night of her stay with us was somewhat sleepless for me, as I was worried whether she'd still be with us in the morning, what with all the IV gear in the house, etc.

Day 2

Well, today we found out that this 'young adult' is in fact about 6-7 years old; so she's not all that young any more, but middle-aged instead.

Today we started her on the meds. The kidney stuff went down without a hitch. She also downed the wormer pretty seamlessly. The antibiotics (intimidating halves of gigantic tablets) were a miss.

Don't know if it was the meds, or just new everything (including actually having eaten something), but Mystery was down and apathetic all day. She wasn't even keen on our laps (and usually the sick ones are drawn to human bodies, for comfort and heat and cuddles). She ate well in the morning, but that's were that ended.

By the evening she seemed lethargic and drained.

And she hadn't defecated yet!

So, no proper sleep for either of us, I guess.

Day 3 (02/02/2020 - a great palindrome of a day)

This morning I discovered two beautiful strings of poop pearls in her litter tray! Result! She seems to pee a lot, maybe not excessively, but above average, I'd say; more than our cats, anyway. But that's to be expected of the kidney-cats, apparently.

She sometimes eats almost enthusiastically now. And her mood seemed rather positive all day.

On the negative side, I still can't administer the antibiotics to her. To say that she recoils from them would be a gross distortion of reality. She ate a quarter of a tablet. Better than nothing, I guess.

Day 4

Ok, so this morning she practically inhaled the first pouch of the day. And, as usual, took the kidney pill without a complaint.

She seems hungry, but I noticed that she's not touching her water. So I decided to sneak some water into her food bowl. She hesitated for a few moments, but in the end got used to the soupy offerings.

Today I also decided that she has to take the antibiotic, so I crushed one of the halves in a spoon, mixed it with some gravy from her food pouch, and invited her to try it. She did. And in an instant she was foaming at the mouth, coughing, spitting. When I tried to clean the foam off her face, she flinched.

I decided (it's a day of decisions, it seems) to call the vets tomorrow for more info - what are the antibiotics for and how badly does she need them? Is there an alternative? I'm also curious about the water situation - how much water does she need on top of the wet food, is the wet food liquid enough? And so on and so on.

Day 5 (04/02/2020)

I discussed the situation with the vets and was told that yes, water is absolutely necessary and the 'soups' I've been making for her are actually a good idea - anything to get water into her is to be welcomed. Also, there is an alternative for the antibiotic - the same drug is available in liquid form with a more palatable flavour for cats, but it will take a while for it to arrive. So, keep trying with the tablets.

And I did. And she foamed at the mouth every single time. And when I say foamed, I mean Mentos-in-Coke kind of foamed. And it's true, this sight can be frightening at first, but it's just how cats react when they taste something they absolutely don't like. We wince and retch, they foam. Still, I have a feeling that this reaction is quite shocking for them - Mystery trotted around the room in panic, looking for places to hide and rid herself of the horrible stuff in and at her mouth.

Nonetheless, she is feeling a lot sprightlier in other respects. There is a chair in the kitten room which usually ends up as their bed/watchtower. And today Mystery felt strong (and some might say brazen) enough to use me to climb up onto it. To her throne. So, in the end, it was a good day!

Day 6

Our friendly neighbourhood vet nurse brought us some liquid antibiotics! Now we're talking, I thought. And yes, Mystery did accept the meds with almost no quibbles. Yay!

So for the next few days we took drugs, ate some wet food, drank some water, and exercised. By 'exercised' I mean walked in circles around the room, because I thought it might be a good idea to try to get her strength up, her muscles working, etc. She seemed to enjoy it. Well, I enjoyed watching her follow me.

Day 9

We got a delivery of renal cat food from the vets, dry this time. We also got a spot-on flea/tick treatment for her. We put it on her, and, as they often do, she started trying to lick it off. Because it irritates their skin, of course. It is a bit of a concern, though, as by doing this they are basically eating pesticides, and removing the drug off the skin where it should be for best results. So, usually we would engage the cats in play straight after the administration of the spot-on, to take their mind off it. But with Mystery play really wasn't an option, and walking didn't provide enough distraction.

Oh, I weighed her - 2.5 kg. Not a whole lot for an adult cat.

Day 10

Mystery is feeling rather tired most of the time. Food doesn't interest her all that much. She just sits and looks at the food bowls, as if trying to figure out why she should find them appealing.

Anything she does eat, she pukes out almost immediately. I also noticed that she's looking for high spots in the room, her favourites being the desk and the filing cabinet. There's a table lamp on the filing cabinet, so for her it is also an extra source of heat, in addition to height. Of course, that worries me - my logic dictates that cats seek out high hiding places when they're feeling vulnerable, or unwell. Or they sense death approaching - my more morbid side came up with that possibility. So I put her on a 'suicide watch'. Well, I started checking in on her more frequently than usual. And most of the time she was still either on the cabinet or the desk, asleep.

But perhaps most alarmingly, she wasn't responding to babying or cuddles. She'd just look up slowly and then simply go back to sleep.

Day 11 (10/02/2020)

She is not getting better, unfortunately. So I started reading to her. I do that a lot with them, to be honest. Usually I go for something like T.S. Eliot's poetry - sure what else would a cat want, or Roald Dahl, etc. But this time I felt we needed to get a little bit philosophical, Mystery probably already was, anyway. So, for the next few days Mystery and I were engrossed in Horror Metaphysicus by Leszek Kolakowski. It's a very good read; I heartily recommend it, especially if you're only starting with philosophy. Mystery seemed to enjoy it, too.

Day 12

I decided to contact the vets about Mystery's general apathy. Plus, she had pretty much stopped eating, even tuna didn't do it for her any more; and usually it's a safe bet, the old reliable, the go-to, you get the drift. The vets told me to monitor her over a few days, and if there's no change, she'll have to go and stay with them and be fed through tubes.

Over the next two days, Mystery's behaviour didn't change an iota. And because she wasn't eating, she was becoming increasingly frail. By now she was casting a frighteningly sad figure, almost painful to watch.

Day 14

We organized a lift to the vets for Mystery. She'll travel tomorrow.

Day 15 (14/02/2020)

Mystery and I spent the whole morning in our by now usual position with her nestling in my lap on the floor, relishing the good old metaphysical horrors. She was mostly sleeping, though. I doubt she heard the last chapter at all. But it was sweet and somewhat poignant, this thoughtful morning.

And then she was collected and taken to the vets where she was put on a drip.

Day 17

Unfortunately, she wasn't responding to any of that, either. Her bloods were showing no improvement.

I assume she was going through some serious changes over the few days at the vets.

Indeed, there's no bigger change than transitioning from the world of the living to the other side.

I have a feeling that she had decided some time ago not to 'rage against the dying of the light', and was now actually ready to go rather 'gentle into the good night'.

Day 20

Mystery fell into a coma.

Day 21 (20/02/2020)

Today Mystery completed her transition.

RIP.

This modest meditation by Bob Dylan may well be the musical analogue of the Rosemary Remembrance Cake: