Soooo…hey! Hi.
It’s been a minute.
You know how you mean to do something and then you don’t and then so much time passes that you think you shouldn’t because at this point it is just ridiculous and absurd. But then you start to feel sad because you really wanted to do the thing and you miss it. But then other things come up and a whole bunch more time passes. Right? You know how that goes.
We are all good. Mostly. Alfie the kitty isn’t well. He got sick around Thanksgiving. He started tilting to one side and walking in circles. He got pretty bad, pretty fast. His vet thought it was an ear infection and treated him with antibiotics and steroids. He got a lot better. For weeks. But as soon as he went off the steroids, all the symptoms returned and he started having seizures. Randy, Joey and I made the decision to let him go. I left that morning to go to work in tears. Randy and Joey were both home with their own tears.
You know how the universe plays super funny jokes sometimes?
I got in my car that morning in December and heard half a song on the eighties station I had it tuned to when the disc jockey came on. Wait, are they disc jockeys still? There aren’t any discs.
Anyway, the guy is on the radio and starts telling a story about his daughter’s cat named Harry Potter. And I’m there with my cheeks still wet thinking, fucking really? A cat story? He proceeds to say that sadly, Harry Potter got sick and died.
OMFG are you kidding?
Then he says that when they were burying Harry Potter, he had music playing. He said “I am not kidding you. This song started playing while we were burying my daughter’s cat.”
Then he played Pet Cemetary by The Ramones.
We named our kid after Joey Ramone. The whole thing was so on the nose. I did laugh a bit, because that was well played.
Anyway, Randy gave Alfie a steroid that morning. And around lunch he called and said Alfie was almost back to normal.
When I called the vet, my only conversation was going to be to make arrangements for Alfie, but when I told her how the steroids seems to cause a rebound, she suggested upping his dose and seeing what happened. She said that cats tolerate steroids very well and he could be on them for a very long time without worry.
Well, that did the trick. It’s been months and while he isn’t exactly the same, he was almost his normal asshole self.
Until about a week ago. We’re seeing his head tilt. Just a little. So, whatever this is, the steroids are starting to become less effective. He’s still fine right now. His tail is up, he’s eating and grooming and doesn’t seem to be in distress at all. But we are seeing the head tilt. Not every day. But it’s happening more often. It could be a brain tumor. It’s definitely neurological.
We’re just glad we’re getting the days we’re getting. But I suspect that fucking shitty decision will have to be made again sooner rather than later.
The rest of us are fine. Normal life bullshit, but good.
I guess I just wanted to stop in and say hi. See how you all are.
Oh man. Years ago one of my cats woke up one morning with her head aimed downward and to the left. I assumed she had a stroke, but nothing else changed. She was like that for months until one day I looked at her and realized her head was back to normal. I have no idea why. Something like 8 years later she did it again but it only lasted for a few months before she passed away in her sleep. The only Vet we could afford at the time was a huge asshole and I wouldn’t, for any reason, bring a cat to him except to put to sleep. I hope your cat pulls through and stays an asshole for years to come.
Okay, so that is super interesting. No drugs or anything? Because he seems kinda normal today. I’m trying to not hold out hope…but I’m holding out hope.
Nope, no drugs or anything. We were really lucky (and poor). Your cat is already on meds so probably would require more direct medical intervention. Maybe it’s time to see the Vet again and have him examined from a different perspective – like if it was your first visit. Unfortunately, sucky Vets seem to follow me and the one I have now is using a Magic 8 Ball to diagnose my current kitty. She’ll be 17 in 6 days and I’m hoping for the best and another few years.
Yay! Michelle fucking posted again!
Sorry about Alfie. Briana just got home from the East Bay and stepped on Littlebeast’s tail while she was giving him the treats she brought him, so I had a cat-scream as my backing track to the Pet Cemetary story.
It fucking snowed. Spring doesn’t matter above 5000 feet, apparently.
Hope you all are doing well, and do me a favor and re-elect Sherrod Brown.
He’s a good dude, and he’s married to Connie Schultz, who won’t let him get away with any weaselly shit in DC…
I’m sorry to hear about Alfie. I had a cat diagnosed with “feline idiopathic vestibular syndrome” a.k.a. cat vertigo. He was 17 and I was sure he’d had a stroke. He recovered about 75% and lasted 3 more years. His head was tilted and he walked funny but he was happy. I love my cats so much and worrying about when to let them go is heartbreaking. I’m sorry your family is dealing with this. (((hug)))
So glad to see you’re back!
Hi. Welcome back. I have all my fingers and toes crossed that Alfie will get back to being his asshole self soon.
And I know that feeling of meaning to do something and putting it off and meaning to get to it but eventually it becomes so ridiculous you’re not sure if you even should do it. Happens to me at work all the time.
Sometimes it even happens with things I really want to do which is even weirder.
Well first off it was great to see a post from you and yeah life has many moments when we mean to do something forget about it and later wonder if we should still do it, that is just life.
I hope Alfie is doing ok and is around for some time yet, strange behaviour but the steroids helped and you never know what will happen next, he could be fine he may not only time will tell.
Your site is up! Yay!
So sorry to hear about Alfie. Glad you’re back.