We are driving to my Dr appt and DH's cell rings and its his mom. She calls him A LOT, so we didn't think anything of it.. He didn't answer, but he asked me to call her back, because we wanted to talk to her about the plans for the afternoon (she was gonna go with us and get her tree too). So I call her back from his phone and I could tell immediately she was all thrown off by the fact that it was me.. and she is mumbling some nonsense about had we listened to the message she left on speakerphone or something (our phones don't even HAVE speaker phone).. and was saying something about her cat being sick.. So I handed the phone to Jeff.. within seconds he was in tears.. Basically the cat he'd had since he was 8 years old (now almost 18 years old) had very suddenly gotten ill.. My MIL had taken him to the vet on Wednesday. They told her he had a tumor/mass in his abdomen, but for whatever reason, she didn't leave him at the vet to find out more. She had brought him home where he proceeded to get much much worse, and by Wednesday night he could no longer stand up. The cat was home alone now..but my MIL was telling Jeff that he should come over after she got home from work that night to see the cat..I guess cuz she wasn't sure how long he'd make it for.
I called and rescheduled my Dr's appt and we immediately went to my mother in law's house. No way I was having my husband wait all day to see his poor sick kitty that he'd had for 18 years. I am SO glad that we did. The poor kitty was in rough shape. I talked to my MIL on the phone a few times, and I called the vet myself.. Jeff got to spend a little time with Buster. I can't say it was great quality time.. but it was something. Buster could HARDLY lift up his head. He did a few times while we were there though.. And Jeff sat with him on the couch for a little while. We made the decision to go back to the vet. The vet said that hopefully IV fluids and antibiotics would at least help him stay comfortable for awhile and they could do some further testing. We had to do a little convincing with my MIL to get her to agree to this. She was worried about spending the money on a cat that probably was not going to live long.. But how could we let him stay there and die, when he could not eat or drink? I think she also sort of hoped he would just die at home instead of the vet's.. but in the end, Jeff and I took Buster to the vet.. We had to leave him there.. I was sort of hoping they'd let Jeff stay with him for awhile even after he got the IV, but we told the vet all along we were not letting him stay over night..
So around 3ish when my MIL got home from work, she talked to the vet again. Buster had been there for around 3 hours.. They had gotten the test results back from his bloodwork.. His red blood cell count was DANGEROUSLY low.. And the xrays showed a big tumor, probably on his spleen. Basically the only two options were a blood transfusion, that would help his blood cell count enough where A)he could live a couple more days or B)they could POSSIBLY do surgery to remove the tumor, but who knows the outcome, OR, they could put him down.. Honestly, with an 18 year old cat and the shape he was in, him surviving that surgery was NOT likely, and even if he did..he'd still be an OLD cat.. and probably not live much longer.. Putting him down was the best choice. At least then Jeff could be there with him when he died, and he would not suffer.
When we got to the vet's office and they brought buster in.. It was horrible.. He had gotten even worse in the 4 hours since we'd left him there.. He could hardly breathe and definitely could no longer lift his head up or even really move.. He was breathing through his mouth, which was just the saddest thing ever, like he was gasping for breath. Jeff wanted to stay with him while they put him down, so MIL and I did as well. I don't know if I would have made the same choice, but I could not leave my husband there alone. That was really hard though. Then we wrapped him up and brought him home, and my husband and FIL are going to bury him tomorrow.
My husband is a mess. He tried to go to work on Friday, but he ended up leaving after an hour.. calling me just SOBBING that he could not be at work.. So he spent most of Friday afternoon alone.. and he seems a little better.. We went out and did some stuff Friday evening.. And looking at some pictures and one little video we have of Buster helped. I feel bad that there are not more pictures. My family has always been one to take TONS of pics of our cats.. Almost to the point where I think its silly.. but, I am glad we do. I have so many pictures of my kitties from when they were kittens all the way up. I guess Jeff's family isn't the same way. There are few pictures at MILs house of Buster as a kitten, but not all that many.. And I have maybe 15 or 20 digital pics of him.. but not nearly as many as my cats, because when Jeff and I lived apart, we shared a digital camera, but it usually lived at my house, and then Buster did not come to live with us when we got married.
The last piece of this awfulness, is that my SIL, who is 22.. so they got the cat when she was 5 years old (I bet she doesnt really even remember NOT having him). has been in Ireland since September. She is coming home this coming Wednesday. So she missed seeing him by less than a WEEK. And, my MIL refuses to tell her over the phone. I am really upset about this. You are gonna wait til she gets home? Until she's ready to walk in the door to see her cat that she hasn't seen in months and then tell her, oh, by the way, he died last week? I am trying to make my husband convince her to tell SIL.. but I don't think its going to happen. Her excuse for not telling her is that SIL's boyfriend is visiting and they are travelling this week to scotland and stuff, and she doesn't want to ruin "their time together".. I think this is BS.. If someone was going to tell ME awful news, I would want to find out when I was with my boyfriend.. and I certainly would be SOOO angry if they waited a week to tell me..
Anyway.. here are a couple pictures of Buster.. One is from our wedding day. (Of course my husband needed his picture taken with the cat before his wedding).. and the other is at the Vet's office BEFORE we left him there.. It was just on Jeff's cell.. but I am glad we took it..
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