08.29.12 : yes. mine.

08.28.12 : sitting pretty

Could I love this cat more? I think not.
Just look at those fluffy little paws.

08.26.12 : squinty

08.19.12 : knitting, interrupted

I was going to do some knitting today.
Kaesea had other plans.

08.18.12 : bunny foot

08.17.12 : little explorer

Kaesea joined me on the deck tonight to check out the view.

Big ol' Kaesea Update

It's been over three months since we moved to Michigan and yes, we are still here. Quite a bit has happened over the past several months, but I haven't had a moment to report it. So let's get it all down now...

In March, about a month before we left California, Kaesea was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, a very common ailment in older cats (Kaesea is now 16). There are a few ways to treat that and I'm not going to get into the boring details, but the best way for Kaesea was via a daily pill. While highly effective, there are some known side-effects to this pill, including diarrhea (which he already has!) and a very itchy face. Since we were just about to move, we opted to hold off on giving him a new medication as we were between vets and didn't want to risk the side effects.

After we got settled in, we found a new vet, who is great -- very kind and down-to-earth. His office is super close to our house, which is fantastic and I know that he has Kaesea's best interests at heart (meaning: when it's time to let Kaesea go, I know that this doctor will tell us, which is so important to us).

So we decided to start Kaesea on the hyperthyroid medication. After one month on a daily half-dose, he had gained almost a full pound! WOW! (Seriously. Let that sink in. One full pound in a month.)

That was about two weeks ago. We were over the moon with joy (for those keeping track at home, he weighed 7.4 lbs). After that amazing news, we upped him to the full dose and kept on administering that.

And then… early last week, he took a terrible turn. He had awful, awful diarrhea; stopped eating; smelled bad… the works. We went straight to his doctor and found that he had lost that pound he had gained. Ugh! We got him on some antibiotics, antidiarrheal, and daily fluids. Staying up all night with him I really thought we were looking at the end -- he was such a mess.

I know it probably seems like Kaesea is "near the end" all the time, but this time, it was truly terrible. I said, "One more day of this, and we're done." And… in true Kaesea fashion, he started eating again the very next day. He was pretty finicky, but we gave him some shrimp and once he started eating that, there was no going back -- that cat ate a full pound of shrimp over the course of two days!

Since then, he is back to eating, grooming himself, and pooping normally. Once again, our miracle kitty performs a miracle. We'll be taking him back to the doctor this week to check on his weight and discuss the hyperthyroid meds. When this first came on, we speculated that the cancer had finally come calling, but with his recovery and the timing with the increased dosage, we are now considering that it's the medication. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, right?

If you're still reading, thank you. Now that the move is behind us, I'll do my best to keep this site slightly more up-to-date.

08.10.12 : survivor

Took this photo a few days after Kaesea had been giving us yet another terrible scare.

He looks so good here -- hard to imagine the drowned river rat look he had going on just days before. Didn't take any photos of that.

08.01.12 : double the fun

Kaesea has taken to looking at us in the bathroom mirror lately. He used to do it periodically (in fact, here's a photo of him doing this three years ago in our old house!) but lately it's been a daily activity.

This photo kind of cracks me up.