Won't be around too much

My elder cat, Tonio, is six years old. He's never been the healthiest of cats, ever since we got him at five months old, so thin and wasted that the first vet mis-diagnosed his sex. He's also very traumatised and neurotic towards strangers, sudden noises etc, which doesn't stop him from being an absolute darling evil feline mastermind who demands cuddles and thinks way too much.



Coming back from my trip, I noticed he'd suddenly lost weight. I was also told he hadn't been eating dry food, and it was unlike him to go to sleep so soon after greeting us.

I had him at the vet's this morning for a blood test. By this afternoon, he's been seen by one of the best feline nephrologists in town, and he's had an ultrasound test.

Tonio has chronic renal failure. His kidney function is at 25%. He's apparently one of the cats that are just born with it: his kidneys have been quietly deteriorating all his life, it's just that this week, he tipped over the threshold and became symptomatic.

He's on twice-daily IVs, special food and special treatment. We won't know the prognosis until much later, depending on how he takes to treatment. But he's not going to be around for the decade or more I thought I had left with him.

It's been four and a half years since losing Lady P, and I still think about her. I want my cats to live until they're twenty-five.

(People I owe stuff to, especially packages: it'll be a few days.)