Well hell.

We took Tiggr in to the vet on Saturday for his annual checkup, and also because he’s been losing a lot of weight lately.  He weighed 8 pounds on the vet’s scale (this is a cat that once weighed 22 pounds and we had to put him on reduced fat prescription kibble).  The vet took one look at him and said, “This cat is dehydrated.”  Which surprised us because he’s been drinking water and eating canned food (though he hasn’t been eating much kibble lately and that is probably why).  Otherwise he’s been fairly regular in his activities of daily catitude, jumping on beds, purring, scarfing kitty treats and so forth.  So the vet kept him for the weekend to put some IV fluids in and to do some blood work.

Yesterday morning she called and said that Tiggr was a very happy cat, eating kibble, playing with toys, very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

This morning she called again and said the blood work was back.

His kidneys are compromised.

That means that we are going to have to take him in weekly for a flush and fill.

When this happened years ago with Snoopy, it went on for about two months I think.

Tiggr is almost 15 years old (he’ll be 15 Memorial Day weekend) and he’s been with us longer than we’ve been married.  He’s the one who ate a half a bobbin of thread when he was 3 and cost us a potload of money to get him fixed up.  Never grudged the money.  It’s what you do when you’re a cat’s parent.

I hope those who come here will be moved to take a moment to have a word with whatever $DEITY they choose on Tiggr’s behalf.  We’ll certainly try to keep him happy and pain-free until the time comes to let him cross the Rainbow Bridge.  We’ve got his lilac all picked out in the back yard, too.

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Tiggr at the bottom; Frankie at the top. A lazy crazy sunshiny day, March 1, 2015.
Tiggr, February 15, 2015.
Tiggr, February 15, 2015.