Aging

Eleven years ago next month we visited the Cobb Animal Shelter and a black tortoise shell 5 year old cat named Samantha put the sales charm on me and within an hour she was in a box in the car going home.

Getting close to our eleventh year together, you always know that once they get into the teens, they may not be with you much longer; but as long as things seem to be going well with their health, you always look ahead into the future and you see them there with you.

The year 2007 began with her annual check up in January and the vet remarking on how good she looks; appears younger than her years! In the spring I accepted a job here in Philadelphia and several weeks after that Noel drove her up to stay with me--for her, a long day in the car of crying and car sickness.

As she always does, she took on the role of looking out for me, keeping track of my whereabouts and learning my new routines. About an hour before bedtime each evening, she begins coaxing me to the bedroom. When I arrive home from the office, she greets me at the door. Wherever I'm located at in the apartment, she's right near by, always aware of my activities.

During the summer, I noticed her eating habits change. She began eating much less (she'd always eaten well) and lost a little bit of weight. She'd been on diet food for years, so I began feeding her the higher calorie foods she used to like before the diet days. She'd attack the new with vigor and then it would trail off. So I'd try something new with a similar reaction.

One evening in October I came home from the office and wasn't greeted at the door. I found her in the bedroom staring blankly at the wall. Her eyes were dialated....she'd come down with cataracts and they'd clouded over completely. Her vision had been declining for years. For several days she moved around very little. I began coming home at lunch time to check up on her and make sure she was eating and that all was fine with her. After about a week of low activity, one lunch hour I came home to find her walking the apartment with her face against the walls. She was mapping out the apartment--the walls, doorways and locations of everything...bathroom, kitchen, her food, etc.

Since that time, her activity levels were pretty normal. If she loses track of me, she calls until I let her know where I'm located in the apartment. While she doesn't meet me at the door any longer, she waits for me on the bed because she knows that I drop off my belongings there when I walk in every evening. When she hears me, she loudly makes a sound that can only be described as a question mark put to sound.

Even without vision, she knows the time of day when things should happen. She still coaxes me to bed just before it's time.

On Friday I came home from the office and found that she'd vomited a great deal near the front door. I found her crouched in the bedroom staring strangely. I fed her some treats and she ate them willingly, but the treats came back up shortly thereafter. Even a drink of water came back up. Her soft food treat that she looks for every evening didn't stay down. She was the same in the morning, and getting weaker. She had an accident on the way to her litter box. I called a vet with a cat specialty and he couldn't see her. I found another vet who determined she had gastroenteritis and sent me off with some prescriptions. She refuses to take any of the prescriptions and isn't eating.

She drinks water regularly. Her food was tinkered with during the night, but I don't think was eaten. I'd picked up some wet food with a gravy and she's licked up the gravy but hasn't eaten a thing. And she's weaker yet than yesterday.

Our Atlanta home was sold and we'll be moving here officially in two weeks to a new house from this apartment. I was expecting she'd join us there but fear that may not happen. I've been holding her as much as I can, just as she's always been by my side when I was feeling ill or simply unhappy. If I step away for too long, she finds me. She's laying beside the chair as I write. Always my buddy.