On cats

It's been nearly two months since I blogged anything. Well. How about that.

There's been no real reason for it, that I can pinpoint.

I just ... haven't. However, I've found myself missing it lately, so here I am, back yet again, with a post about cats.

Well, sort of. Some cats. Some of my cats.

We lost one of our cats  a few weeks ago. Scout - in the picture to your left - had been losing weight at a rapid and alarming rate. She'd always been a big-boned girl - at least dating from the time she spent about a year living in my bedroom because of anxiety (that's another story) - so the extreme weight loss was concerning.

So I booked a vet appointment and Jeremy duly took her out to be checked under the hood.

The most likely cause of such extreme weight loss, the vet said, was lymphoma. They would open her up for exploratory surgery and if indeed it was that, they would simply not bring her out of the anasthetic.

And ... so it proved. My poor Scout had been basically starving to death because the tumour pinched off her gut. Her end was - at least - pain-free but by gosh I miss her.

It's the first time we've ever had to make the decision to have a pet euthanised, and although there was no other decision to be made, and it was on poor Jeremy's shoulders to make it, it's still a very, very hard way to lose a beloved pet.

Scout was eight years old. We got her from a pet store that has since closed down, when she was about 7-8 weeks old. She was a loving, if shy, cat, who's biggest joy was pinning a human down and 'munching'/'making biscuits'/'kneading' (whatever your preferred definition) until she looked slightly glazed. She would then settle down and fall asleep.

RIP Scouty. You were secretly my favourite. (Don't tell the other cats.)

Bracketing this small tragedy we had two cats - Casper and Misty (both elder statescats of the household) in at the vets for teeth removal/cleaning, and Misty somehow managed to get a laceration on her tongue. We still don't know what happened, and she's still a bit unhappy with us (she had the surgery on Tuesday.)

So it's been a pricey and sad month in our household cat-wise, this month.

"Cats are kindly masters, just so long as you remember your place."- Paul Gray