I am sick at heart as I write this.
Three months ago I said good-bye to my beautiful, imperious little tabby, Diamond Girl. A few weeks later I welcomed a new little friend to the house, Astraea Heightclimber, a gorgeous part-Bengal, much to the annoyance of Gil the Wonder Cat.
There was some hissing and some spitting, and definitely some competition for food. All in all, though, they seemed to be settling in together, and I got used to having them sleep on the bed with me, Gil on my right, Astraea on my left:
Then I noticed that Gil felt thinner than usual. I took him to the vet in December, and he had dropped about half a pound. This worried my vet, but since he needed a dental cleaning we thought that was the cause and made plans to have this done in the spring.
Then he got thinner, and thinner. His appetite slacked off, and he seemed nervous whenever I offered him food. I tried various wet foods, he ate less and less, and finally I took him to the vet on Friday, frantic. He turned out to have lost another pound, which was bad — he’s always been very lean — but x-rays showed he was badly constipated so I thought an enema would clean him out and he’d bounce back.
Except that this much weight, this fast, is likely something worse than being blocked.
He’s eating again — not as much as I’d like, but he definitely has an appetite — but my vet suspects he might have cancer, probably lymphoma. I’m taking him to a specialist for an ultrasound on Thursday to see if there’s something else we can (or should) do, but I looked up the costs for feline cancer care, the additional time he’d gain, and am just in despair.
I realize I’m probably jumping the gun — this might be something else entirely, something treatable — but he’s thirteen, which is not young for a cat. I have very tough decisions to make, and after losing Diamond only three months ago I am struggling to face what could be the loss of my beautiful, soft, sweet-tempered boy. I also have to keep myself from blaming Astraea somehow, because if there’s an underlying illness it is absolutely not her fault.
Either way, I am very low tonight. Gil is my best boy, and he doesn’t deserve this at all.