there was a stray cat who came ’round our house over last weekend, and he looked thin, and was friendly, and so we gave him food. he was also a very vocal cat, so we started calling him Mr. Noisy. then we sat down, each in turn, outside, and let him crawl onto our laps and we petted him, and he purred.
then he stopped eating.
we brought him inside, and let him sleep, at first in a little cat basket thing, then in our laps. all he did was sleep…whenever he woke up, we tried to feed him. we tried all sorts of things, even chicken broth, tuna, and milk (not together). he drank a little bit of milk, not even a teaspoonfull, and threw it up (outside on the driveway). he never used the litterbox, or defecated outside, as far as we could tell. he stopped being noisy.
we had to go to Mt. Rainier, to make sure that some humans had food and clothing. we couldn’t think of what else to do; we couldn’t afford to take him to a vet, and we were afraid it was something like feline leukemia, something fatal…that we’d spend a bunch of money and then he’d die anyway. so we took him to the animal shelter, where they at least test for leukemia. the guy there said if he was okay he’d be available in two days…we agreed that if he was, we’d adopt him. I cried.
yesterday we went back to see if Mr. Noisy was available. he wasn’t in the main cat area, but he was in their book, and a woman went to check if he was okay.
fatty liver disease. still not really eating, but she didn’t know much more; somebody else, who knew the veterinary stuff, would call us later to tell us more. he also had a chip – he’d been adopted from that very shelter. they were trying to get ahold of his previous owners, but so far no success. somebody abandoned Mr. Noisy.
the call: fatty liver disease, in cats, is terminal most of the time. there was nothing they could do, and that afternoon he was euthanized.
rest in peace, Mr. Noisy.