We have 4 cats. Two are old, two are young. This is about the older cats.

One of the older cats is just dealing with age. There’s what appears to be a tumor growing on her left rear “knee” hock. We spoke with the vet about it when it was smaller and in the end there’s not much we can do about it. At her age, any sort of treatment or surgery would probably kill her, so it’d wind up being a lot of money spent for no gain and in the end the result remains the same. So, we just give her a high quality of life. She still gets around OK, limps, but manages. Apart from that and sleeping a bit more, she seems to be the same cat she’s always been. I’ve had her a little over 15 years, since she was a kitten. Every day I enjoy it with her, every day I prepare myself a little more for the inevitable.

Then… there’s the orange cat.

*sigh*

He’s driving everyone in the household crazy. He’s about 14 years old. He’s always had a problem with throwing up (not just hairballs), but it would be few and far between. He’s also always had a penchant for peeing on things in non-litter-box places or pooping just outside the litter box, but again few and far between. This always bugged us, but it was rare enough that we could live with it. The past some months have been terrible. He’s been throwing up fairly often. We haven’t noticed him peeing outside the box, but he does poop everywhere. And what’s worse, the poop isn’t normal. It’s an odd color, there is blood and some “mucus-like” stuff around it, plus lately it’s been runnier (I know, pretty picture). We’ve taken stool samples to the vet, nothing came up. We’ve tried dietary changes. No luck. Next up I guess are blood tests. We’ve also noticed a demeanor change. 

We’re quite torn. On the one hand we know there’s something wrong with the guy, and likely he’s feeling chronic pain. Trouble is, we don’t know what it is and I’m frankly unwilling to spend thousands of dollars on exploratory surgery if the blood tests come back negative. Even if the tests come back with something I’m not sure what I’d want to do about it. He’s always been an indoor cat (when he was a kitten he was declawed) so while we’d love to just throw him outside, we don’t think that’d be right. But the constant pooping and vomiting all around the house is getting unbearable. It’s disgusting, unhealthy, and rather an ugly problem. Thought about buying a large cage and just locking him in it, but he’d moan and cry all day long and that would drive us nuts too.

I think the thing that breaks my heart the most is Youngest. He was never into any of the animals around the house, but one day the cats clicked with him, and the one he’s bonded with the most has been the orange cat. Whatever ends up happening to Mr. Orange is going to really be tough on Youngest. 😦  But, it’s life, and you get through it.

I also think about Wife. Orange has been her cat since before we were married. Wife and Orange have a special bond together, but all the crap with The Orange One drives her crazy. But Wife doesn’t know what to do. Throw him outside, but she’ll feel horrible. Put him to sleep, but the thought drives her to tears. So he sticks around as usual, but then shits on the kitchen floor and pukes on the freshly washed and folded clothing she left on the bed, and Wife wants to scream. 

Why am I writing this? Venting, I guess. I’ll be sad when orange cat is gone, but I admit he’s worn out his welcome with me. There’s a vet appointment today for orange cat… we’ll see if anything different comes out of it, even if it’s just some better advice on ways to deal with his shit (figuratively and literally).

Damn cat.

Updated: Wife returned from the vet. Vet did a blood draw and we’ll have results in about a week. Vet skipped the stool sample saying “no, that won’t tell us what the problem is… the problem is him” and pointed to the cat. Vet also believes that the reason the cat goes everywhere is because he can’t help it. So great, incontinent cat. Joy. Vet did say he had a cat once with similar issues, was able to give it periodic shots and eventually the cat was all better. So, who knows. We’ll be able to determine what to do next after the blood tests come back. 

Meantime, all we can do is be patient with the cat. *sigh*