Oh, Sox...

*sigh* two posts in one week, it's always feast or famine with my blog posting.

Not a good one this time around either. Sox had another "vestibular episode" last night, and it's quite distressing to see her this way. The head tilt, repeated eye movements, and not being able to walk properly. I see that she's got off the bed and taking refuge in M's room at the back of the house. I've just made her up a bed on the floor next to the heater. She ought to improve enough to get to the litter box and food/water in a day or two but the first few days have been described as like having sea-sickness as her three-dimensional sense of feeling is all out of tilt. This has happened twice before so this time around wasn't quite the shock of her first one in which it was described to us as a "stroke". Sadly there is nothing beyond making her comfortable that we can do, the symptoms do get better gradually.

My girl, my best friend, is about 17 at best guess. She was adopted from an ex-partner so I don't know her exact birth date but it's around 1993. A Californian girl, driven north to Oregon where she lived in town and then the badlands of central Oregon, out-living three other, younger cats from the predatory coyotes around. Shipped half way across the world, 90 days in quarantine here in Byford, and three house moves and she's still going strong. Spends most of her days in bed, most of her nights in my arms.

She pee'd in the bed last night, so a big load of laundry. Pee's and poo's like a greyhound (or so the saying goes), the crystal stuff that is supposed to last one cat, one month, barely makes it through the week. I'm just dreading the conversation tonight, if Roy brings up the "green dream" I am going to have to choke him. I've held pets in my arms for euthanasia, both as a vet nurse and a pet owner. Each time the decision and time was right to say goodbye and let go, but now is not the time for Sox. She is destined to live out her days in lazy comfort, heck it's inconvenient and smelly, but she is in no pain. Gryph and Matilda have both learnt to respect her boundaries, and gosh darn it she just makes me happy. So no, I won't be considering euthanasia for her. There is no pain, just occasional vestibular episodes like this one, her last bloods were completely normal, and she's very well-loved. I'm pretty sure I'm not in denial about this, but if anyone has any comments to make please do so I will consider all points of views.