My Cat

I recently lost my sweet cat to cancer. She was 13 years, 6 months, and 8 days old. She was diagnosed with lung cancer last spring, and I'd been spending as much time with her as I had and giving her the best care I could. Up until a little over a week before she died, she was in terrific health despite the cancer. She hadn't lost any weight, looked beautiful, and was as active as most senior cats. The vets said you couldn't have even guessed there was anything amiss unless you looked at an x-ray. But on October 21st, she suffered a blood clot in her leg, and though initially she started to recover from that well, ultimately she took a turn for the worse. She died early in the morning on October 30th, at home, with her family here.

I got her from some close friends who had taken in a pregnant apartment complex stray, friends who I wish I'd stayed in better contact with but somehow haven't. Whether or not I revive contact with them, they gave me one of the best gifts I've had in life. I'll always miss her. When you have a companion like her, it's like no matter what else is going on in your life or the world, there's always a bright spot that shines, always the place you can look to see the grace of a blessing in physical form, someone you can be with to feel shared appreciation and comfort. No one, human or animal, will ever occupy the role in my life she did.

I also want to speak to those of you who have pets of your own, because after my experiences with her illness, there are some things I'd do differently and some things I'd do the same. I'm going to bullet these so they're easier to see. :)

• If you're going to have a pet, try to make sure you have the time and resources to give that pet a better life than s/he might find with someone else. I probably should have waited a little bit to have her, but she was born and I was there and I wasn't going to pass her up! :)
• If you have a senior pet, or even a younger pet, think seriously about getting health insurance. For some animals, dental care alone can well warrant the cost of getting health insurance. And for dogs and cats, there's a finite amount of time they're going to be with you. If you're already paying for food and incidentals, $5 extra a month for health insurance for 4 years of their life (maybe once they get to an age that makes you a little nervous) only works out to under $250. That's just one expensive visit to the vet, and if your pet needs $800 of dental work or $3000 surgery, it can be the difference between life and death (even dental diseases can quickly spread throughout a small animal's whole body).
• Cats seem to develop life-threatening illnesses around age 13 or 14. I don't know why this is, but if you look online or talk to people with cats, I'll bet you will find this is the case. It could be kidney disease, any kind of cancer, or other illnesses. If you have a 12-year-old cat, start being even more vigilant about his/her health.
• Cats are prone to aortic thrombolembolisms, often occurring in the "saddle" area, which leads to lameness in one or both legs. My cat's clot was not in the saddle area, luckily, so she only experienced lameness in one leg. But the good news here is that the lameness is not always permanent! Most cats regain some or all leg function. If this situation ever occurs with your cat, make sure you get prompt and proper care. Cats can be treated with very low doses (prescribed! because it can be toxic) of aspirin and even Plavix to help prevent future clots. Do home physical therapy with your cat as long as your vet says it's okay. I used warm compresses, Topricin, and range of motion passive physical therapy, and four days after the clot, my baby already had most of the use of her leg back. I think if her lung capacity were stronger, she's have fully recovered from the blood clot.
• If your vet diagnoses your pet with a serious illness, get a second opinion, even if only to get an idea of different treatment options. Do research on your own as well, as questions, and be pushy. A lot of vets may not have the time to research treatments on their own or even realize you're that interested/motivated, but if you press them, are willing to go the extra mile and try out therapies they haven't before that may help your pet and even more of their patients.
• If your pet (especially a senior pet or a cat) has an unexplained cough, get an x-ray, and have it thoroughly examined. We brought my girl into the vet about her cough nearly 6 months before she was diagnosed. She wasn't x-rayed, and for four months we gave her hairball remedy for what was not only possibly an early tumor, but also treatable asthma that worsened without treatment. It's also quite possible that if we'd caught the lung cancer before it spread to more than one lung, it could have been surgically removed.
• If your pet is diagnosed with a terminal illness, understand it doesn't mean they are going to suffer and/or die immediately. Don't make snap decisions based on what you worry might happen in the future---try to pay attention to the present and how your pet is feeling and acting.
• If your pet is diagnosed with any illness, know that they have the capacity to cope with a lot, especially with your help. When my girl was diagnosed with diabetes about 3 years ago, the vet mentioned that some people end their pets' lives humanely when they get diabetes. That's another reason why I stress it's important to know you have the time and resources to spend on a pet---no one's life should be ended because of diabetes. It's a totally treatable disease!
• Know your pet's illnesses. Diabetes can cause leg weakness, but I didn't know that at first. I also didn't know that the food I fed my cat for most of her life, though recommended for healthy teeth, was giving her too many carbohydrates and probably contributed to her developing diabetes. Investigate your pet's food. There are many reasonably priced super-healthy choices out there now. My little girl enjoyed Wellness, Nature's Variety, and Natural Balance, among others.
• If you know a pet or even a person with cancer, from the studies I read it really looks like it can help to supplement your diet with watercress (raw, whole---the chewing of the leaves in your mouth releases something helpful) and parsley (raw, but chopped is okay---the oil on the leaf has helpful benefits). Also, prednisone can be used to help slow the progression of some cancers. My kitty was already taking it for her asthma when she was diagnosed, and she lived the human equivalent to about 2 years after her terminal diagnosis. She also got fresh watercress or parsley in every meal. I honestly believed all that helped. In addition to other benefits, all those things may also cause apoptosis of cancer cells, which means they spontaneously die rather than replicating. Apart from the earlier asthma troubles, she never had breathing difficulties more than post-stairclimbing windedness or a few coughs a day until the last two or three days of her life. You can read more about those and other alternative therapies to help with cancer at the National Cancer Institute. National Cancer Institute - Comprehensive Cancer Information
• If you ever need help with a pet, turn to friends and family, and I bet you'll find more support there than you'd have expected to find.

I don't mean to be preachy with that list. I should have been more prepared myself. I didn't meet a lot of those items myself, I know! I should have. But I do feel like once I committed to the responsibility of caring for my beautiful sweet kittygirl, I tried to hold to my promise as well as I could. I wish I could have given her more, but I did try to give her everything I could as much as I could. Adding some advice here for anyone who may need it and find it just makes me a feel a little more like I'm doing something to help rather than simply grieving.



The preceding post is excerpted and edited from an email I sent to close friends after the death of my cat. The more I think about her and what I went through in trying to find advice or any kind of help in treating her, I realize what I wrote here would probably be more helpful if other people who are in similar circumstances might be able to find it. So just in case there's someone out there like me, frantically Googling about cat physiotherapy or feline leg exercises; cancer-fighting home remedies or nutritional aids---whether or not it really works, a lot of times you just want to know it may help and that you are doing all you can. I've left out her name intentionally, because she was my baby but could have been anyone's baby. I could also go on and on about how much I love and miss her, and still dream about her every night, but this is probably more helpful. :)

The Super Bowl

Well, the significant male in my life was intrigued by my take on the Super Bowl, and encouraged me to quickly pen my picks for this year before I got in the shower, so here goes. I'll try to keep it short and sweet to finish before the game starts and so I can get going myself.

Keep in mind I had to ask for verification on which teams were actually playing! I knew, but wasn't certain I knew.

It's hard for me to pick this year, because it seems like the Saints should win. They have heaven on their side, after all. They're just very powerful in that regard. Heavenly influence is mighty. They're also from a bigger city. Of course, I thought that city was St. Louis until I just looked it up. I don't know why, because I know that when Hurricane Katrina hit, people were staying in the Saints' stadium, so I knew they were from there. I think I remember having this confusion at that time as well. What team is from St. Louis? Is that the Cardinals? Perhaps that's why the Cardinals were coming into the mental mix when I was trying to recall what teams were playing. But aren't the Cardinals a baseball team? I'm not 100% certain New Orleans is that much bigger than Indianapolis, but it has more historical prestige, I think.

The Colts, though, I feel more like I'd want them to win, partly because it seems like the Saints have the upper hand, and the colts are just young horses from Indianapolis, which I'm sure is a lovely little city but isn't really a real city. It fits the definition but not the real vibe of being a city, and it doesn't have that much panache. Even St. Louis is 3rd tier in cityness. New Orleans may not be huge but it has a lot of panache, which makes it 2nd tier.

I didn't get to go on in my evaluation to him, because at this point I was encouraged to blog about it before the game starts. But I was going to say, though, the Colts beat the NY/NJ team that was in the running. I think it was the Jets, but it may have been the Giants. I can't believe I forget, but shut up, I do. They lost anyway. That's what happens when you lose, people! They give you a ticker-tape parade, but the people who don't follow football forget who you are in a couple of weeks. But I was a little miffed the Colts got that game, so I was debating maybe saying the Saints should take the Super Bowl. The Saints are also from New Orleans, and I love New Orleans. I've never been, but my father lived there for a long time when he was young. I like the sound of the place. And it seems like they deserve it.

But I guess the Colts should win. I hear it will be an opportunity for Peyton Manning to show his snot-nosed younger brother Eli that Peyton's not out of the spotlight yet, and that sounds good. I have been assured that while the Colts may not have another win in them, the Saints have a very good chance of winning next year. Also the whole young horses against heavenly honorees thing.

But hell, you know what? I changed my mind. I think the Saints should win. Just look at the statement there, and does it not sound right? The Saints should win. Looks good. I'm sorry, I know they're young horses and everything, but the Colts have won before, they've had a big strong famous team a lot of the time, and no one can guarantee the Saints will be in the same position next year. They're here now. I think they deserve it.

But the Colts will probably win.


note: I am not stupid. I just don't follow sports very much at all, least of all football.