Daily Kitteh: Dear Sweet Boy

This evening, the familiar chap on my shoulder transforms from mammal to muse. While I could post a long tribute to one of the greatest cats I've ever known, I don't really have the energy right now to go through with it. Maybe after a little time has passed. For the time being, I think the email I sent out to people last night basically sums things up.

Unfortunately, Moon's time has come to move on. Our vet was able to figure out a treatment plan that gave us a little over another year with him when we thought all bets were off. He fought pretty strongly during that time and really hung in there up until this past weekend. The going theory is that his kidneys are just about shot.

He has no interest in eating, and his posture is quite withdrawn, clearly indicating that he has basically had enough and is ready. Tomorrow evening, the vet will do what needs to be done at this point. I asked our vet to consider using Moon for research to possibly aid in future treatments for other animals. The fact of the matter is that a cancerous mass was identified in December 2007 and he was able to last this long on a treatment of methimazole for his thyroid and prednisone for his inflamed digestive tract. I think it would be worthwhile for her and her colleagues to see what kind of effect the treatment had on the cancer.

Moon's been quite the character, as some of you could attest to. It's hard to believe that about 12 years have passed since the time I picked him up at the animal shelter, and he was already 5 years old at the time. One thing I remember fondly was a visit from my first house call vet who was trying to trim Feather's claws. Feather was meowing quite a bit, and then Moon ran onto the top of the couch where the vet was, meowed, and started slapping him on the head. I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

Well, this is part of the package, as they say. I'll certainly miss him terribly, for as far as felines go, Moon shares no equal.