Deedee

Last Friday I took Deedee to the vet for a checkup. She isn't that active of a cat normally but she'd been pretty lethargic the few days prior. Usually, my Dad gets home from work and she sits with him while he watches TV, letting him pet her and such, but that behavior stopped. She was putting herself in places where she wasn't easily reachable by us. So I took her in and had the vet take some blood work. She was dehydrated, which made sense because she hadn't been eating or drinking. Due to the holiday weekend, the results from the blood work were due back on Tuesday. Her behavior did not change any of those days and on Tuesday the vet called with bad news.

For most of her life, Deedee's only had one working kidney. The other one was physically there but didn't function. Her blood work showed high levels of creatine and blood urea nitrogen, indicating that the working kidney was failing. I brought her in on Tuesday and they were going to try a bolus (fluids given intravenously) to see about jumpstarting the kidney. We got no word on Tuesday or Wednesday, and I was optimistic since no news is good news. However, this morning, the vet called to say that while she received the fluid treatment fine her creatine and BUN levels did not go down. In other words, both of her kidneys do not function.

I can remember bringing her home almost ten years ago. She was a rescue cat - a woman found her scrounging around in the garbage to feed a litter of kittens - about a year old. She jumped up if you held your hand out so that you could pet her. She was so traumatized, though, that my family was completely unaware she was home since she spent the first few nights under my bed. But she grew to trust me and my family, becoming a very well-behaved and loved member. My mother and father became very fond of her - especially my mother. I'm sure you all remember that she was a very docile and friendly cat, never living up to the bad rep that cats get: no randomly attacking people, only showing love and concern, not running around a lot, etc.

We brought her home so that people can say goodbye before bringing her back to the vet to have her put to sleep. She isn't in any pain as a result of the kidney failing, at least not yet. However, she will eventually start convulsing and there might be some pain at the end.

I love Deedee and will miss her greatly.