On Yin and Yang’s first birthday, we made them little paper hats. Yang, at left, did not appreciate the sentiment.
Tomorrow, he turns 15 years old.
No hats. But there will definitely be a celebration.
Archive for the ‘Cats’ Category
Happy birthday to Yang
Posted in Cats, tagged cats, postaday2011 on June 7, 2011| 2 Comments »
When the right things go right
Posted in Cats, tagged biopsy, cat biopsy, cats, postaday2011, Yang on June 1, 2011| 5 Comments »
Nearly everything I did today went wrong. The item I needed at the library was MIA. My iPhone refuses to charge. I couldn’t get my old laptop to connect to UAH’s ridiculously complicated wireless network.
One thing went incredibly right, however. Yang’s biopsy results came back, and the spot we had removed from the back of his neck wasn’t cancerous. His blood tests indicate that he’s extremely healthy for a cat his age.
Now if we can get his left ear to straighten out (it had a spot that got removed, too). Stitches come out tomorrow … fingers crossed.
As Pictured Below: Yang packs for a short trip
Posted in As Pictured Below, Cats, Photographs, tagged cats, postaday2011, veterinarian, Yang on May 23, 2011| 5 Comments »
Yang heads to the vet tomorrow to have a small growth removed from the back of his neck. He’ll be 15 years old in about two weeks, so I would like to just leave it alone, but he keeps scratching it open. Eventually, it’s going to get infected.
He’s a terrible rider, so the worst part about the whole day is likely to be the drive to the vet’s office, not counting the hour or so we’ll be in the house with him in the morning without being able to feed him. He’s quite crotchety, you know, even when he’s not hungry.
Indoor cats are much more difficult to lose
Posted in Cats, tagged cats, coyotes, inside cats, lost cats, postaday2011 on March 20, 2011| 1 Comment »
Another week, another lost cat in my neighborhood. Seriously, if your cat has gotten shut in other people’s garages several times, or has a tendency to jump into vehicles, don’t you think you should keep him inside instead of letting him run around loose? Especially given our neighborhood’s tendency to attract the occasional coyote?
Inside cats rock. They live longer, healthier lives.
The best laid plans, foiled by feline instinct
Posted in Cats, Photographs, tagged balloons, cats, DIY photo backdrop, dreamscape, photography, Photojojo, postaday2011, Yang on February 23, 2011| 3 Comments »
When Photojojo suggested this awesome photo project yesterday, I knew I had to try it. What’s more awesome than a cat dreamscape? Yang even looks an awful lot like the cat in the photos. And he sleeps, like, ALL THE TIME.
I chose the cat-gets-carried-away-by-balloons DIY backdrop. I dutifully printed out a few balloons from a coloring pages site and went to work with my colored pencils. I carefully cut out the balloons and taped a piece of string to the back of each one.
I quietly approached Yang, who was sleeping next to the dresser, on which I planned to stand to get the extreme vertical angle needed for this shot. I spread out the balloons in what I thought might be a float-away formation and gently tucked the ends of the strings under a paw.
Things immediately went awry. Never underestimate the instinct or muscle memory of a 14-year-old cat.
Yang woke up with a start, stood up and pounced on the middle of the strings, biting and batting the whole way.
I had no choice but to play chase-the-string with him for the next 10 minutes.
The balloons and their strings are now safely ensconced in an office drawer.
I face a creative dilemma: scuba-diving cat or cat holding an umbrella and being swept away in a rainstorm? I wonder which is less swat-worthy.
Pretzels + chocolate coating + kosher salt = effortless goodies
Posted in Cats, Eats, tagged cake pops, cats, chocolate, chocolate coated pretzels, chocolate coating, chocolate covered pretzels, kosher salt, peanut butter, pie, postaday2011, pretzels, sweet potato pie, sweet potatoes on February 2, 2011| 2 Comments »
I spent several hours last Friday making a sweet potato pie, only to discover that my husband really doesn’t like sweet potato anything. I found the pie cloyingly sweet, and certainly wasn’t going to finish it by myself anyway. The only household member who liked it was Yang, who snagged a morsel that I dropped on the floor. He looked up at me like I had dropped the rarest, most delicious piece of fish he had ever eaten. Alas, aged cats do not have sweet potato pie on their list of dietary allowances.
Monday, I spend 30 minutes halfheartedly dipping some unsalted pretzels that were nearing their expiration date into leftover chocolate coating from the grand cake pop experiment. I sprinkled each one with the tiniest bit of kosher salt and laid them out on waxed paper to dry.
Little did I know they were to become the snack of the week. The husband and I both love them, particularly with a little peanut butter smeared on top.
Yang has shown no interest in them.
So, hours of effort yield a pie that no one likes, while a last-minute attempt to clean out the cabinet without trashing food yields delicious goodness. You never know.
As Pictured Below: Curiosity irritated the cat
Posted in As Pictured Below, Cats, Photographs, tagged cats, Gladys Kravitz, iPhone, neighbors, photography, postaday2011 on January 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The construction guys next door were making plenty of noise this week, and Yang’s inquiring mind wanted to know what was going on. Note that in his quest to see down into the yard, he has pressed his head against the glass so hard that his ears are flattened.
I live with the reincarnation of Gladys Kravitz.
Yang lands on his feet
Posted in Cats, Photographs, tagged animals, cats, chronic renal failure, kidney failure, mother on September 14, 2010| 1 Comment »
A lot of people have asked me how Yang, Yin’s brother, is doing now that he’s by himself. I have to admit that he’s been practicing being a solo cat for a couple of years, hanging out with his brother only for meals and the occasional fight or stair chase.
My mom says that animals know what’s going on in the household probably more than we do. I suspect that he knew his brother was very sick; a couple of times in the week before Yin died, I saw Yang sniff his brother and give him a quizzical look. I think he was also giving food to Yin. For the past few weeks he had been leaving food on his plate that Yin quickly scarfed up; once Yin was gone, he began eating every bite.
He’s been a little snugglier, and he’s slowly learning to ask for meals and snacks (Yin was always the town crier when it was food time). He hasn’t gone around the house looking for his brother; I think he knows Yin is gone for good. So, in a word, Yang is OK. And the rest of the household is well on the way to OK, too.
The last days of Yin: snacks, adventure and love. Also, more snacks.
Posted in Cats, Photographs, tagged ahi tuna, animals, cantaloupe, catnip, cats, chicken, chronic renal failure, cremation, death, grandmother, Greenies, husband, melon, pet cremation, pets on September 6, 2010| 9 Comments »
I received tons of kind, helpful advice from a lot of people recently regarding some difficult decisions my husband and I had to make about our cat, Yin. The statement that stayed with me day and night, though, was one that a fellow Alabama blogger, Bo, shared. Bo’s 15-year-old dog had died in her sleep not even a week before my original post, and his comment struck home: “I really wish I would have controlled her last moment with us.”
Thursday, September 2, was Yin’s final day with us. I gave him a tour of the garage, a spot off-limits to cats for a number of reasons, and spent literally hours rubbing his belly and his soft, silky ears whenever he would put up with it. I baked a piece of chicken so he could enjoy the smell and the anticipation of one of his favorite treats.
As I was putting a few pieces of soft, too-sweet cantaloupe down the garbage disposal, I heard the distinct ka-chunk of Yin jumping down from the refrigerator; he had always loved melon and was sniffing the air, wondering where his share was. I panicked, realizing I had just thrown away the last bit of melon in the house on the last day the biggest melon lover in the family was going to be around. I quickly grabbed a container of homemade coconut-cantaloupe ice cream out of the freezer and patiently sucked the ice cream off of a few cat-sized pieces of melon. Yin enjoyed every mushy bite.
My husband seared a piece of ahi tuna for dinner so that Yin and his brother, Yang, could enjoy their fair share of what has turned out to be their favorite food ever.
It was an epic last day.
I spent the night on the couch downstairs because I didn’t want Yin to wake up alone during his final few hours. I fed him chicken at 1:30 a.m. when he got up to find the litter box, and rubbed his ears until he decided to go back to sleep on the fridge at 3.
Yin died at around 8:30 a.m. on Friday, September 3, as my husband stroked his side and I rubbed his head and left ear.
Not wanting to leave his body to the care of strangers, we drove him to the crematorium ourselves. We wrapped him in a pillowcase that my grandmother had embroidered before she died in June, and outfitted him with two toys, five Greenies and a tablespoon of catnip for the cremation.
A little over an hour later, we left with a small metal tin containing his ashes.
Thus ends the saga of Yin, who we cared for from the time he and his brother showed up on the carport of our rental house in Mobile, Ala., to the moment we left his tiny body in the cremation room.
It was a fun 13 years. I miss him like crazy, but I also feel honored that we were able to help him have a dignified end to a wonderful life.
A good death for a good cat
Posted in Cats, Photographs, tagged animals, cats, chronic renal failure, death, kidney failure, pirate cat, sub-Q, subcutaneous fluids, veterinarian, Yin on September 1, 2010| 5 Comments »
At 8 a.m. on Friday, what was going to be a return checkup for Yin will instead be our peaceful goodbye to him. He’s been putting up with treatment for his chronic renal failure, but he’s tired. So tired. He doesn’t feel good, and he doesn’t know why.
I think he would keep taking pills and subcutaneous fluids for as long as his little body would hold out, but those treatments just don’t seem right anymore. He hasn’t gained any weight. He spends his days and nights on the refrigerator, coming down only to eat and seek out the litter box. He eats like a champ, but then tucks himself back into his spot on the fridge, displaying varying stages of discomfort or, mercifully, falling into a deep sleep.
I’m tired, too. I lie awake at night, terrified when I hear a noise downstairs, even more terrified when I don’t.
This is the bravest, kindest and most difficult decision I’ve ever been a part of.
A couple of times a day, he’ll perk up and almost resemble his old self, meowing at the top of his lungs for tuna or climbing onto my shoulders pirate cat-style for a ride around the first floor. These episodes give me pause, but I can’t make him go on just for the sake of an occasional glimmer of hope.
His work is done here. To paraphrase one of my favorite professor’s favorite quotes, there will soon be a Yin-shaped hole in the universe. I can never fill it, but at least I’ll always know that I let him go with dignity.
-
Join 67 other subscribers
Join the discussion
-
-
Categories
Archives
Entirely Adequate 
