Die another day - Toby and 0029

"I'm checking out. Thanks for the Kiss of Life." ~ James Bond (Die Another Day)

oh heck - just as the rest of her seems to be rallying kitty has a 'funny lump' under the skin which is possibly getting bigger. The vet is ignoring it strenuously and I'm not thinking straight - perhaps I should have jumped on it last week and investigated while she was under for the drain. The thing neither of us want to face is the prospect of a malignancy.

Seems she is simply dying more slowly, as our vet puts it - or living to die from something else like Toby - who was an uneutered Tom cat from Woodstock Ontario Canada. Toby lived the bachelor lifestyle, out partying every night and returning home in the daylight hours for food. When he got wet FIP he survived due to the ministrations of his owner, homeopathy and a change of diet (he stopped Taste of the Wild dry food and the pokeweed prescribed by a naturopath amongst other things); Toby fast tracked from having a FIP belly drained in August 2011 to normal function, including the partying, by September a few weeks later. He had places to be and cats to see - ladies to romance, guys to fight I guess and in April 2012 walked off into the night, sporting a swollen leg from an encounter of the 007 kind, never to be seen since by his human, Monika.

There was similar kitty, known only to me as "29" who was one of the original cats on the Polyprenyl Immunostimulant study. 0029 had dry FIP with neurological symptoms, who during treatment got well enough to get back to the killing business but met his match in a coyote. "when he was sick he was hanging around the house, once he started feeling better, it was hunting again, it was bringing little presents to the owners on a regular basis." ~  Dr Legendre WINN Feline Symposium transcript

But of course I am the eternal optomist. Unlikely things happen such as Miko the red burmese being reunited at the grand old age of 17 with his family in Essex, UK after a staggering ten years AWOL thanks to his microchip. Who knows, Toby is merely MIA he may reappear into Monika's life somewhere down the road.

from humortrain

Mishka by Moonlight

"Do you believe in immortality? No, and one life is enough for me." - Albert Einstein

Mishka was two in September but in cat years she is 25 - what should be her prime. We took her home to LIVE, and not spend too much of that doing stuff she doesn't like. So emphasis noms, sleeping in the sun, trying to catch a bird.
or a frog - since the nights are warm Mishka was allowed her hearts desire to head out after her midnight snack and I found a little frog for her to play with. The little brown frogs who live in the water tray of my potplants hop about on the window cleaning up moths after dark. They are not fussed about being picked up - we took one to school for show and tell once. No danger of our fat furball catching it - always one bemused hop behind the frog.
Sometimes she doesn't want to hunt - she just listens to the wind and sniffs. The scent of the night garden is different and Mishka by moonlight is exquisite - it's her element. Such a shame i can't capture a picture of her luminous fur, shadow like a second cat spirit beside her under a strange dark bright sky, the fullmoon on the sea beyond and the southern stars above ... plainly I'm no poet; you had to be there. Just sitting.

So tick one off the bucket list. Cats are crepuscular (FIP expanding my vocab again) most active around dawn and dusk. Really I can't understand people who want a cat to give up being a cat to be on people time.
Now that Mishka has celebrated christmas with us our next goal is easter. I saw this while grocery shopping today - fresh baked just after boxing day and best before New Years day! Perhaps we should make the goal Valentines Day.