Update: Not great

I feel bad about posting these "Debbie Downer" updates, but... it is a blog about a terminally ill cat, so that's just the way this is going to go, right?

Thank you, as always, to everyone who has sympathized with our downs and cheered for our ups. At some point, things will end on a bad note and we'll all cry about this together. For now, Kaesea is still hanging in, but we might want to edge that tissue box just a leeeettle bit closer to the computer in preparation.

Kaesea went to the vet last week for his regular checkup and... the news was not great. He weighs 7 lbs, which is 2.25 lbs down from his last checkup 3 months ago. (Which, up until that point, was his lowest weight.) I knew that he had lost weight, but seeing that number on the scale was a real blow. That is a lot of weight loss. We called him "skinny" at 9 lbs, but 7 lbs is a whole new world -- I can feel bones that I never even knew were there. He is scrawny.

However, until a few days ago, he was still in good spirits. When we saw his doctor last Thursday, she still seemed pretty positive about the situation -- he was playing, purring, eating (although not great) and generally seemed to be doing okay, soo... just hang in there.

After that... ugh. Kaesea has experienced an increasing state of "funk" since that visit.

When I woke up this morning, I really thought it was all over. He has seemed generally miserable for the past two days and... I don't want him to be miserable. So this morning I said to myself, "If the misery continues for one more day, we're calling it quits." But when I came home from work today, he was purring and kneading the bed with his paws like, "What? Who's sick?" Sooo... of course, Kaesea the Miracle Cat comes through yet again. Right now, he is sleeping in a state of total relaxation on Bill's desk chair. I took this photo of him earlier tonight -- what you cannot see there is the purring and contented bed-kneading.

The doctor did give us an appetite stimulant, but I am conflicted about giving this to him. Pretty much everyone says that when the cat stops eating entirely, he's ready to go. Sooo... if he wants to stop eating, who am I to get in the way? However, even without the appetite stimulant, he was still eating something, so we have given it to him a few times since his visit. We did not give it to him yesterday or today and he's still eating pretty well, so that's some good news.

There is also a very slight "edge case" that the recent bout of increased diarrhea is due to a bacterial infection (not just the cancer), so we are giving him a very mild antibiotic right now. Here's hoping that Kaesea, who does love to be an "edge case," embraces that idea.

I know this is terminal and there's only one way for this to end, but I'm grateful for each additional day we get with this cat and, as long as he seems happy to be here, I'm happy to keep him. We've had a few rough days, and a slightly better day today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? I'll keep you posted. Thanks again for tuning in.