Shadow is gone.

She was a good kitty.

A year and a half ago, she started peeing a lot more. So much that my girlfriend and I had to switch her to crystal desiccant cat litter because her clumping automatic litter box was getting jammed three times a week.

Then a couple of months ago, she began losing weight. I thought she was simply getting old (She was 13 or 14 years old.). But she continued losing weight. We tried moistening her kibble, but she wouldn’t eat that either. We gave her (lactose-free) milk occasionally to get some nutrients into her. We gave her canned food. She took to that at first, but she still didn’t eat much. She occasionally vomited what she did eat. We looked up her symptoms in our cat medical book and everything pointed to kidney problems, including her very bad breath.

While all this was going on, we kept our eyes out for signs of pain and illness. We both have had cats all our lives, so we know that cats retreat when they hurt. Shadow became more lovey-dovey in the past few weeks. She had always been somewhat distant. Her name came from her habit of following us from room to room, but staying just out of reach. She started greeting us as we got out of the shower. She didn’t care that she got dripped on. Many mornings I was surprised to wake up with her on the bed. She was much more vocal than before. She got underfoot in the kitchen. She liked exploring the running faucet in the bathroom. That was very unusual. Shadow was pretty, but she was kinda dumb. It kept her out of trouble. But in the past few weeks, Shadow seemed to get a brain-boost. She was suddenly interested in things, like the sink. She was jumping up on the counter and the kitchen table to check things out.

Turns out that all this new behavior actually was a sign that something was wrong. I took her to the vet today. She was down to four pounds from her normal twelve pounds. They sedated her to examine something they saw in her mouth. She had an infection and what they think was a tumor on the roof of her mouth, extending into her sinuses. It had gotten into her blood stream and affected her kidneys and given her a urinary tract infection. She must have been feeling really shitty, but she never let on to us how bad she felt. She was going to rapidly deteriorate. She stayed under sedation until we got there to say goodbye. I stayed with her when she went. It was peaceful and quick.

She doesn’t hurt any more.

If Tumblr search works, you can see lots of her here. (Entering Shadow in the Google search bar on my page works better.)

Goodbye, pretty kitty.