Thursday, August 14, 2008

War Wounds

Well, we've gone through quite the ordeal & emotional roller coaster the last few days.
My (youngest) cat Finnegan got sick on Friday and because of our lack of high-tech vet equipment up here it was a bit of a long process figuring out what was wrong with him. First we thought he might've swallowed something, then we thought it might be a kitty disease and then on Monday the vet felt a mass in Finnegan's stomach. We made the heart wrenching decision of deciding on exploratory surgery (it was that or send him out of town and at that point we thought they'd end up doing surgery anyway) and made what could've been the "good-bye visit" at the vet's. Thankfully before the surgery part came, the vet discovered that Finnegan was experiencing urinary issues (yay for catheters!). Finnegan is back home recuperating, on antibiotics and will be on a special diet for the rest of his life.


Finnegan sporting a shaved leg from his IV (he chewed it out the first night, little bugger!!)

I hope I never have to make any of those heart wrenching decisions again. And I wish that pet care didn't have to come down to "how much are you willing to spend to save your pet's life?". I'm thankful the vet is a family friend and extremely compassionate but also very frank about what problems and risks we were potentially facing.
I ended up having to take two days off of work because I was so upset and because I wanted to watch Finnegan to see if he was getting sicker (he started getting sick on Friday and I ended up taking him in for fluids on Sunday night because he wasn't eating or drinking and kept throwing up - he was still peeing a tiny bit though which was probably the only thing that kept him going for so long).

Like children you're not really supposed to have a favourite and I hate to admit it but he's my favourite. I love my other cat Tilley (she's 5, Finnegan is 3) but she wants nothing to do with me. It's a female thing - she LOVES Glen. Finnegan is THE MOST affectionate cat ever and will cuddle and snuggle and purr all day long if you'd let him. He runs to greet me at the door and follows me around the house. He also spends a lot of time laying across my shoulders (where he is right now) - it's either that or carry him around in my arms all day. He reminds me a lot of one of our first cats. We called him Boogity (Boogie for short - his mum's name was Squirrel - lol) he slept on my bed with me, under the covers with his head on my pillow.


Me with my buddy Boogie.

Unfortunately Boogie got into the neighbour's antifreeze and passed away at a very young age (probably not long after that picture was taken). I'll never forget the day my mum met me half-way on my way home from school to tell me the news.

I don't really want to end on such a sad note so I'll say that I finished knitting a small bear. I'll post about it another day though. He's quite cute and I've already started another.


Temperature: +11C
Sunrise: 6:08am
Sunset: 11:44pm

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Finnegan looks a very brave kitty. Greebo had weeing problems once, and it is not nice. Luckily he is OK and does not have to be on a special diet. Glad Finnegan is going to be OK too :)

Megan said...

I'm actually surprised Finnegan did so well mentally - he has separation anxiety so I figured he'd be ultra clingy and meow-y but he's doing really good!

I'm glad your kitty is doing well!

Lisa said...

I'm so glad Finnegan's OK!

Megan said...

Thank you!
Hope you're well!

Littlelou said...

How spooky, your cat Boogie looks exactly like my first cat Cleo(1987-2002)All white with a tiny faint grey splodge between his ears.

Hope Finnigan perks up soon.
Take care

Louise