Pluth

Pluth.

The 18.5 year old Maine Coon cat is back from his overnight/all-day stay at the vet's. His blood sugar is back where it should be. For now. We've got to make sure that he is eating regularly. Particularly since the vet found a tennis ball-sized growth in his abdomen that is pushing his intestines around, pressing on his stomach a bit, and possibly other organs in the middle of the body that are generally considered essential.

Given the size of the mass, the location of it, and the age of Mr. Bufus, we are electing to do nothing but keep him comfortable (it doesn't seem to cause him pain) and make sure that he's got plenty of food and water. If he stops eating regularly, or has issues related to the result of regular eating, we'll have to re-evaluate. As it is, we've got to make sure his blood sugar level stays where it should; which means that the bottle of 'maple syrup' (i.e. flavored corn syrup) that we 'borrowed' from the neighbors will stay with us, and I'll replace theirs when I go to the store next.

Given that I thought we were going to lose Bufus yesterday, I'm glad that he's alive, and generally acting like his old self. We have no idea how long the mass has been there, or how fast it is growing. It could move very slowly, and essentially have no bearing on his life, or it could be more drastic. Regardless, every day we've got him is a lucky one; we were preparing to not bring him home from the vet when I left him last night. The fact that he's up and down off the bed, hanging out with Gary and 'acking' at Fiona is all good.

It's just been a rough several months with the animals. In future, we get a new child every 4-5 years so we don't ever find ourselves again in the situation of having a very geriatric crew (our miniature poodle is 17); it's been difficult to see 3 animals nearly die, and 1 of them ultimately succumb in a period of 6 months.

But I wouldn't trade the rough parts for all the fantastic parts. Not in a million years.