My Elder Muse

[patinagle16]

We've had some scares recently with Mishka, the elder of my furry muses. A couple of weeks ago he had a seizure, and then he had another yesterday morning. Apparently seizures are not uncommon for cats, but they're sure scary for the human servants.

Mishka is at least nineteen years old. We adopted him in 1991, and he was an adult then. He was a street kitty - we got him from the pound, and he was sick six ways from Sunday. Got him cleaned up and medicated and healthy, and he's been our friend ever since. (Actually, he picked my spouse as his human. Bumped up against his hand when he was still in the cage, and that was all she wrote.)

After the first seizure I took him to the vet and had some tests done to asses his general state of health. The vet says he's in good shape for his age, but he's still old and getting frail. Has arthritis, cataracts, etc.

For a while now we've been aware of this, and we view ourselves as providing kitty assisted living for our pal. We're watching him pretty closely, brushing him a lot as he can't groom himself very well any more, and helping him get up and down places sometimes. A few months ago my dear spouse built some steps to help him get on and off our bed (yes, we spoil him).

I'm writing this now because I want to save some memories of him while he's still alive. I don't want to have to scramble for them after he's gone. So this blog is going to be a Mishka journal for a while.

Today he hopped down from my desk chair and hurt his forepaw, went limping around the house. He seemed to take this stoically - I guess one more pain isn't so new to him. Hard to watch, though. He got some extra cuddles for it.

Comments

Best wishes

[victormilan.livejournal.com]

Here's wishing much more life to Mishka, and much comfort and joy in what remains to him. Especially since I have two aging cats of my own, whose company I fear to lose...

Re: Best wishes

[patinagle.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Vic. We're trying to keep the comfort and joy level high. If he becomes completely miserable, or unable to walk, it will be time to schedule an appointment with the vet. So far he's still pretty happy.

Best wishes for your elderly kitties. It's bittersweet, being a kitty caretaker.

[idiotgrrl.livejournal.com]

Aww, poor kitty. I know this is a hard stage of his life for you. May Bast be good to him!

[moon-happy.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to seeing some Mishka stories here.

[patinagle.livejournal.com]

Thanks, folks. I'm surprised at how strong my feelings have been about this - I guess when you live with a critter for a couple of decades, you get deeply attached.