It is never easy to say goodbye to a beloved female friend, and it is even sadder when two of three sisters cross the Rainbow Bridge in less than two months. That’s what happened to my cats Jou Jou B and Jenise, who—along with their sister, Jolie Fille—were adopted at various times in 2014.

Jou Jou B

Jou Jou B’s health crisis hit suddenly. It was about 1:00 AM on Tuesday, April 11, when I was awakened by a strange thud. I turned on the light and saw Jou Jou on the floor next to my bed. As I was trying to determine whether she fell off the bed or missed when trying to jump up onto it, I saw that her posture was strange. She was crouching, not moving from the spot. I tried to get her to move; when she did, I immediately noticed that she was walking in a weird position. She tried to sit in some strange places in the room, totally unlike her usual self.

With a feeling of dread creeping over me, I considered whether I ought to take Jou Jou to an emergency vet. I concluded that I would need to get dressed and take her to BluePearl, where Charlie, Toshi, and Pearl Grey had been treated. Jou Jou B was not happy to be in a carrier.

The ER vet initially suspected a heart or lung problem. Some X-rays were taken and some blood drawn. There was nothing definitive. The vet recommended that I leave Jou Jou there to be examined in the morning, so that is what I did.

Later that morning, I learned that heart disease was now ruled out and a neurological problem was suspected. One symptom they noted was that she was walking in circles. The veterinarian I spoke to suggested that I be referred to a neurology specialist, but that option was likely to be costly. The other suggestion was to try to treat Jou Jou with medication to see if she might improve. I selected the second alternative.

On Thursday, I got another call, saying that I could try taking Jou Jou home with several medications to see if she might improve there. I decided that it was best to go back to BluePearl and observe her to see what I thought. The staff allowed me to see Jou Jou in a room. I watched her walk, crying out a bit as she did so. She was making a wide circle as she walked and would occasionally bump into an obstacle rather than avoid it. I held her for a while, which she tolerated for quite a while. I decided that—given these circumstances—it would be kinder to say goodbye than to watch her suffer at home.

The veterinarian on duty wanted me to know the common behaviors I might observe during the euthanasia process, but I assured him that I had been through this at least 26 times in the 26 years since I had returned to Royal Oak. Fortunately, Jou Jou’s passing was serene. I was able to take home a small case with her paw prints set in clay as a memento.

Jenise

Jenise’s health problem apparently began some time ago without me realizing that she might have a serious problem. I had noticed that from time to time she would cough, making a dry, raspy sound. Since this was infrequent, I suspected an allergy. This changed one Sunday night when I noticed that she seemed to have difficulty breathing. Each breath seemed labored and more rapid than normal. Jenise’s appetite was also affected. I was fortunate to be able to get an appointment with my vet two days later, May 16.

The initial X-rays suggested a problem with the heart or lungs. Blood tests ruled out heart disease. Because there was fluid in Jenise’s lungs, the vet drained the lungs (150 cc) and sent the fluid out for testing. Three possibilities were suggested: heart disease (which had been ruled out), cancer (although no cancer cells were seen), or idiopathic chylothorax. A visit to a veterinary internal medicine professional for possible surgery was recommended; however, the earliest appointment I could get was not until June 29.

The next four weeks were filled with stress, as we tried to boost Jenise’s appetite (with Elura) and reduce the fluid in her lungs (prednisolone and a compounded liquid form of rutin). Twice more her lungs were drained, with even greater volume. Finally it became clear that the treatment was not effective in controlling the fluid in Jenise’s lungs, so I took her to Oakland Veterinary Referral Services after church on June 11.

The emergency veterinarian who handled Jenise’s case was wonderful. She explained that the draining of Jenise’s lungs had probably caused some additional damage and described what the (very complex) surgery for this condition would involve. There was only one veterinarian there who would reluctantly perform this type of surgery, and she would not be available until later in the week. Whether Jenise would survive until then was questionable.

It was clear to me that Jenise was suffering, so I made the sad choice to say goodbye to her that day. A set of paw prints—different than Jou Jou’s but lovely as well—was made for me to keep. With the help of my coworker Garry, I laid Jenise to rest next to her sister Jou Jou B in the garden in our backyard.

Jolie Fille

On a more positive note, the Lord blessed my last-minute effort to get the remaining sister, Jolie Fille, to the vet. Because she was the only feline to send me to the hospital overnight soon after I adopted her in 2014, I have never taken Jolie to the vet. In light of the recent passing of her sisters, I became more determined to get her there if I could. My appointment for RubyDoo was scheduled after work on July 13, but I decided to try to grab Jolie instead—and was actually successful! My only injury was a small blood blister on my left arm. Surprisingly, Jolie was very well behaved at the vet appointment. Dr. R was able to examine her, give her very overdue vaccines, and take blood and urine samples. Contrary to my expectation, Jolie does not even need a dentistry at this time. Hallelujah!

I have no idea what Mom was thinking (or maybe she wasn’t)! Back in April she came home with this little fiend of a cat named Dusty RoseNose. The minute she arrived, she started hissing and growling at us, It’s not like we could have hurt her or anything. Mom put her safely in a lovely cat cage at first. When Mom let her out, though, she started coming after us with her nasty mouth and evil claws. What a punk!

Well, I have showed her just what it’s like, Whenever I see her (unless I am enjoying some attention from Mom), I run after her, spitting and growling and acting ferocious. She will run away from me, but I can’t seem to banish her entirely from my presence. If only Mom had not decided to adopt her!

We are not sure where the saying “We’re Back and Better Than Ever” originated, but we are happy to borrow it for this post. Mom seems to have been way too busy to update the world on our fabulous selves, but she has a bit of time tonight so we persuaded her to make the effort.

Mom says our furnace is not working right. The thermo-majig will turn off when the desired temperature is achieved, but the furnace keeps on working. It got to 85 degrees in the house yesterday, and Mom had to come home from work to stop it from roasting us all. Nobody came to fix it today, either. It was a repairman from Sears who caused the problem yesterday; now they tell us we are on their maintenance schedule for an air conditioning repair on November 1. Somebody is drinking too much Kool-Aid.

At least Mom can turn the furnace on for short periods so we don’t get frozen. It is cold outside, and everyone knows we kitties love to stay all toasty warm. Maybe someone will come tomorrow to fix the silly thing correctly.

We will try to keep you updated with our lovely selves more often.

Swapping Feline Family Members

The weirdest swapping around here in recent weeks has been in the composition of our feline family. After four cats crossed the Rainbow Bridge in 2015, Mom decided it was a good idea to introduce a new family member in December. His name is Rascal Spatz, and he was born in March 2015.

We have only seen him at the screen door to Mom’s bedroom, but Jou Jou B–who spends 99% of her time out in the living area–has suffered a number of his overzealous, “playful” attacks, especially when he had just arrived. Of course, Mom kept him in a cage at first; soon she was letting him out on “trial runs” to see if he would get along with everyone else. He usually had to be “re-caged” within a few minutes for bad behavior. Lately, however, he seems to be minding his manners most of the time. We hear a lot less whining and growling.

Swapping Room Preferences

A new frequent visitor to our private chamber has been RubyDoo. She frequently would leap in here when Mom was not careful, but would soon want to be gone again. Then she had to have some dental work done, including two extractions (one fang), and had to wear an E-collar temporarily. She came in here with us and stayed a while.

Now she wants in more often, and Mom lets her stay as long as she likes. That’s OK with us; she does not bother us, except when she picks the best places to sleep next to Mom.

Swapping Bedrooms

Our “orange invader” brother also was a frequent flyer here, but almost never spent the night…until recently. Invariably, Mom would head to bed and get to sleep for a little while. Then Pawscar would howl, and Mom would return him to his lair in our kitchen/bathroom area (we have never seen it, but have heard reports about the warm dryer on laundry days and the heating vent that releases warm air at floor level in the bathroom).

Last Thursday, something changed. Mom was worried about Pawscar Awesome’s eye. When she put the drop in his right eye that morning, he started squinting really badly and rubbing his eye. Mom checked, and saw that the tissues around the eye were red. Since Pawscar has had pressure problems in that eye, and some strange condition in both eyes for which he has gotten treatment for more than a year, Mom took him to the kitty ER. He had developed corneal ulcers (whatever that is) because the steroid he has been taking for a long time weakened his immune system. Mom had to add an antibiotic salve and pain medicine to his treatment for several days, and he has been staying in with us full-time ever since. He sleeps most of the time and never bothers us, so it’s OK.

Today Mom is happy because the ophthalmologist said Pawscar does not need the eye drops for high eye pressure in his right eye any more, and his “chicken slop” (compounded liquid prednisolone) is reduced to .25 ml every day. The right eye also does not need the antibiotic salve, but the left one still does. At this moment, Pawscar Awesome does not seem to care; he is too busy cat-napping.

We wish you a happy new year!

We hope there is nothing to fear.

We want every word to be clear,

And no one to shed a tear.

Are we great poets, or what?

Disturbing the Peace: Snoring

It has been very quiet here this afternoon, once Mom’s cousin and niece departed to their homes…until now. And what I want to know is: who’s snoring now? The sound seems to be coming from Mom’s bed….

Oh wait! Now that I am blogging about the noise, it has stopped. I guess I will never be able to prove the identity of the culprit, but I suspect it was this cat:

All’s quiet again. Tune in again for the next episode of “Who’s Snoring Now?”

Disturbing the Piece: Chomping

Before I could complete my post, another noise beset my delicate ears. Someone was chomping a piece of dry chow…or two. Allicat is still napping, Jenise is in her plush cube, also sleeping. I am pretending to doze, but keeping my ears on alert. I know who the hungry cat is: our orange invader has left his hut to enjoy a few morsels of OUR cat chow. The nerve! What’s worse is that he is hogging Mom’s lap AGAIN. Some people’s cats just don’t know how to behave when they are guests in someone else’s home.

So what time is it? Frustration time. Mom has had all sorts of problems with her church website today. This evening she noticed that the Events Calendar is already on tomorrow. She decided to check our site, because it uses the Events Calendar, too. Lo and behold, ours says it’s Wednesday, September 9, but it’s only the 8th here in the Detroit area.

Mom went to the Events Calendar website. Other people in New York and Chicago are having the same problem. They were told that it MUST be a theme or plugin conflict, and were given a set of instructions to check this out. Mom did NOT want to change the theme on her church website; it already had had enough problems. She chose to try out the steps on ours.

First Mom changed the theme to Twenty Thirteen. Our website looked really funny. Everything was in strange colors and places. Then she turned off all the plugins except for the calendar. She cleared the browser cache. Did it help? NO! Mom concluded the problem must be with the Events Calendar plugin.

Mom says she would be afraid to ask those people over at Modern Tribe who make the Events Calendar, “What time is it?” If they don’t know what day it is, they surely do not know the time.

We are all very sleepy kitties today. Maybe it’s the weather: 88 degrees and mostly Sunday here in Rrrrowal Oak, Mewchigan. That means the air conditioner is running a lot, making our basement home a bit on the chilly side. Chilly surroundings means we like to curl up as tightly as possible and NAP!

Mom is worried about me. I have been overdue for my shots for quite a while, but I refuse to get into the carrier. Mom has tried to trick me by putting catnip in the carrier she keeps here in our room. She even tried to give me a “knock-out” pill mixed in my food, but I refused to eat a bite. Now I have a watery eye, and I can hear the wheels grinding in her head. She MUST get me to the vet. No way!

So I remain curled up, keeping warm and staying as unobtrusive as possible, just like the other very sleepy kitties around here.

It seems strange to me that as I am out and about among the other kitties more and more over the past weeks, my poor sisters and Googlie Girl are having to put up with the frequent presence of the Orange Invader, aka Pawscar Awesome. Right this minute he is sitting on Mom’s lap, just purring away, while she types on her keyboard. What can the three girls do, other than nap on Mom’s bed? What is worse, Mom is actually interrupting her typing to pet the Orange Invader! How rude!

Mom, where are you? Inquiring minds want to know.

I think something very fishy is going on lately. Mom seems to be getting up very early in the morning, as early as 7:00 AM sometimes. Of course, I help her out by playing with the electric cord on the wall lamp several minutes before her alarm is set to go off. Then she zooms around the house, disappearing in her nightwear and reappearing in day clothes and makeup. Luckily she does not forget to feed us, give us clean water, and clean our litterboxes. Then she vanishes for a very long time.

Just when it seems I may never see her again, she returns. The sun tells me it is later in the afternoon. She never tells me where she has gone. I overhear her talking to Dad once in a while about “work” or “church.” Less often I hear “doctor” mentioned. I don’t know what those things are!

What I do know is this: I miss Mom. I need some loving and attention. COME HOME!