Pets and sadness

UPDATE: Lilly Lu has started to eat on her own and is getting better. This is one of the few good news stories about people and their pets recently. I'm so happy for this family of humans and kitties.

Mu Shue's blog post about Lilly Lu is so very sad. Her companions must feel so helpless about now. Whenever a precious kitty of mine has gotten sick, invariably I've had to make arrangements for help to Rainbow Bridge. Anne's Cabernet is the only exception I know of. About 3½ years ago, Cabernet was diagnosed with major UT problems. This was when Anne and family still lived in Sterling, VA. Now his litterbox output is monitored closely, he is on a very special and strict diet, and he's doing really well.

We had Friday for 11 years (1971-1982), but when he got sick, he really got sick. It was less than 5 weeks between first vet visit and his going to the Bridge. He was the one who made three moves with us to different houses and three round trips in our RV between the SoCal desert and Santa Fe, NM, when I was working on my MA at St. John's Graduate Institute. He was a great little traveler, and was the only male hunter I've had.

Then we had Stinky from 1987-1991 (he really didn't stink; it was just a "pet name" because he was so cute!), who managed to contract feline leukemia when he was about 4 years old. The vets were just beginning to understand this disease; the vaccinations for it were just coming out. It was about 8 weeks between first vet visit and his going to the Bridge.

Then I had Indy. She was born in 1991, when Stinky was still healthy, and turned out to be a great little hunter for well over ten years. She made the trip with me to Texas, but became ill VERY quickly before we had been here a year. It was less than a week between my noticing that there was something wrong and her going to the Bridge. She missed turning 15 by about a month.

I got Pluto when Indy was about 6 months old. He was a wonderful, part-ragdoll cat - very loving and thought he needed to spend all his time in my lap! He lived 12 years; there were about seven months of vet visits until it was obvious that nothing was going to work. He was spending his life on antibiotics, and that wasn't good for anyone, especially him.

There were other kitties, too, most of whom just disappeared. I never really knew what happened to them, although it wasn't too hard to guess. Lots of coyotes in that desert, you know.

Grace, Audace, and Ruse are very healthy and full of zip and pizzazz, but then they are only about 1 and 2 years old. I love having them, even though they've taken over my house, and the front rooms always seem to need cleaning!! They are precious, and I'm trying not to think of any negative futures for them. They are totally indoor kitties because of the experiences I've had with indoor/outdoor kitties in the past. I am getting that expensive Science Diet food for them - no problems of the sorts announced in the pet food news lately. Am I paranoid about this? Probably so.

My heart breaks whenever anyone has to go through what Lilly Lu's human companions are going through. Just breaks...