MIDLIFE [CATS]-19, Saturday, June 08, 2024 - Luke: For the "Pet Lovers."
If you are a "pet lover," this might be for you; what you already know based on your own pet experiences, just here, written.
We got Luke in about July of 2016, a couple of years after not having a cat. […] was 9, […], 7. I met the wif, […], a couple of months later, so she first met Luke by way of Skype, then Whatsapp. So, we have all enjoyed Luke for the last eight ( 8 ) years. Our previous cats, Tigger and Kanga, brother and sister, Tigger passed a couple of years earlier, while Kanga passed a couple of years before then. Tigger was about 12-years-old, while Kanga was about 10-years-old.
Basically, getting Luke was a product of waiting, as it was pretty hard losing Tigger, and it was important to wait for the right time to take care of another animal: attention, feedings, litter-box routine, etc. We went to Petco on Bay Area Boulevard, and found Luke through Second Chance Pets, who had set-up a pet adoption event in the store. We, I, had to sign an agreement that he would be an indoor cat, which is a pretty consistent pet expectation in most neighborhoods and subdivisions.
For much of the past eight years, Luke had a biting issue, but in hindsight, I really think he was just frustrated with my work schedule as I would often be gone for long periods of the day, while the kids were also not always home. He would nip, teeth or claws, like a frustrated surprise attack. It was a pretty challenging habit to navigate because he was a great cat, he just did not like not getting an abundance of attention, so sometimes he would go for a leg if you tried to walk by him.
Earlier this year, April time-frame, Luke dropped weight, and went from his hearty, full-coat, to a more leaner version of himself. At first we thought that it was from feeding him nibs of lunch meat, organic turkey, thus changing his pallet taste, or maybe from when he got into the garage and ate a couple of June bugs. Either way, the weight dropped, and his demeanor changed. When it looked unhealthy, due to his unwillingness to eat the Rachel Ray dry food we had fed him for the past several years, we researched supplements, and found, Stella & Chewy's "Magical Dinner Dust," at Petco, a cage-free chicken, grain-free, gluten-free, recipe. It is a supplement that you add to dry food. It worked, for a couple of weeks at least, but once his comfort and stool routine changed, we took him to the Dickinson Animal Hospital, Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
At first they thought that it was some type of feline hyperthyroidism, but the next day, the blood tests came back with a fatter liver issue. We changed him to a lightly cooked ground turkey routine, which he gobbled up five (5) times a day. For about two (2) weeks, I thought that he was in the clear, until last Thursday night when he did not eat his 9 p.m. serving. He ate a little that next morning, yesterday, then started tanking mid-morning, wobbly and disorientated. I called the Veterinarian and set an appointment for that afternoon, 2:20 p.m. I was hoping that he had a urinary-track infection (UTI), easy fix, but they did X-rays and said that he had some type of intestinal blockage, likely cancer, or cancer-related, including fluid in his abdomen, so we went from hope, to end-of-life decisions within an hour of arriving.
Called the wif, called the kids, and […] left work early, while […] went to get […], and came from across town to the hospital. We agreed to put him down, have him cremated, and returned in a wooden urn.
Sure, "only a pet," but it hit us all like a board. Within about fifteen (15) minutes of […], […], and […], arriving, the staff were administering the IV regimen. What more can you do, take him home, watch him suffer? It would have been for us, not for him, it would not have been right, just to give him pain medicine in order for us to have time to cope.
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About a year ago I told Luke, who loved to be pet, that if he would just be a lap cat, he would get pet all the time. Up until then he would lay next to us, but was not quite the lap cat. To my surprise one night while sitting on the couch during my evening routine of watching the news, he climbed in my lap. It was only for a couple of minutes, but it became a routine. Maybe he knew?
The Veterinarian said that after reviewing his test results, he likely had some type of intestinal lymphoma for a period of time. They suggested that his eagerness to eat the turkey was likely a "rally," an excitement about eating turkey, but not so much anything that was making him better when it came to the core of the issue. I hope that he appreciated the feast.
For what it is worth, we got to be there, hold him, and pet him while they administered the fatal cocktail. He seemed tired, ready to go, and went right to sleep without so much as a flinch.
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Sure, forty-seven (47) photos is a lot [there is only one photo on this X post], but it is nice to spark and share the memories with […], […], and […]. Walking around the house, after eight ( 8 ) years, there is really no place to go without thinking about him, so we might as well remember the moments that were photo worthy, instead of thinking of the many instances and places in which he is now absent.
The painting is in the lobby at the Dickinson Animal Hospital. They are a really nice and professional group of folks. Their prices were reasonable, and administering appropriate care was most important to them. They did not push testing and services that were not toward a productive end.
In our case, it was just Luke's time.
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Luke: for the "pet lovers."
- Matfucius
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