Friday, February 29, 2008

what to do



I don't know what to do. This is Joplin. You may or may not have seen her here before (i can't recall right off hand, she isn't out much). Joplin is 12. I don't know if you can tell from this bad flash picture or not, but she is extremely fat. She weighs at least 15 pounds, if not more. She has breathing problems. She even gets out of breath cleaning her front paws, which is about all she can reach at this point. She's extremely skittish. This has gotten worse as she's gotten older. The vet says she's part calico, and they get crochety when they get older. She hisses at everybody, even mark. yesterday, he reached out to pet her, and she had such a panic attack she almost fell off the sofa (mark has owned her for 11 years, and she was always "daddy's girl."). he told me she hissed at him again this morning. i have watched her hiss when sean gets UP from the sofa, where he's been sitting quietly next to her. she refuses to move, unless it's to eat, drink, or use the litter box. except lately? she's not been using the box. for a while, she was peeing in the dining room. the vet told us to make sure the litter box got cleaned daily, and to put bubble wrap where she'd been peeing, cuz they don't like the feel on their feet. this worked for a few months (once we got her past peeing on the bubble wrap). however, she's taken to peeing in FRONT of the litter box. and i don't think it's an accident, because she's picked the exact same spot three days in a row. even though we've cleaned it up every time.

so, it's come down to a decision. do we put her to sleep? we've tried to get her to exercise (cat toys, cat nip, even a laser pointer, which she chased for 2 days, then refused to do so after that), and tried to get her to lose weight. the hard part of that is that we also have jimi (i know you've seen him here, he likes to get in on my shoots!), and can't put him on diet food without him losing too much weight, and feeding them separately is impossible. it's been the main discussion around here for the last 2 days, and frankly, i'm the only one who doesn't dissolve into tears everytime it's brought up (it's not that i don't love her, but i'm the one who deals with her messes, sigh).

but when she is in one of her rare good moods, she's so lovey. purrs so loud you can hear her across the room. cuddles, and rubs her face on you. but they are rare. i wish i could get in her head, and ask her what she wants.

but i'm tired of walking into the house, and getting hit with that nasty ammonia smell, and i'm tired of getting hissed at when i have to move her to get at the remote for the tv (she will lay on it, and sometimes i think it's spite). she's never bitten me, but i'm waiting for it.

i think that mark and i have decided what to do, it's just him getting to the point where he's accepting it.

and i sit here and listen to the poor thing snore loud enough to hear over the harry potter cd i'm listening to.

4 comments:

Michelle said...

Awww, I'm sorry. Although I've had pets all my life, I have no advice. I always want to hold on longer than I should because of my own heartbreak, which is so stupid because in the meantime I torture myself because I can't do anything to make them better. *sigh*

In the meantime, {{{hugs}}}

Unknown said...

I'm so sorry about your little friend. I have no advice either. Pershaps she's not agile enough to get into her box. it happened to a friend's cat. But who know's. Sorry I can't be more help. I sometims think being an animal physic would be a great around my own cats.

Susan said...

I'm so sorry you're in that position, especially since you seem to know what needs to be done for this poor girl. It's tough to be the one who has to set emotions aside and make that decision. I hope she has some more good days so everyone can say their goodbyes, and then the right time for the next move becomes clear to everyone. Good luck.

Jen said...

Good luck with this decision. It's a tough one to make. Hugs to you all.