Feline health update
<p>A brief update for those of you who were following the saga of our cat Sugar&#8217;s brush with death and remarkable rebound early last September.</p>
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<p>At the time of Sugar&#8217;s episode of acute renal failure and emergency hydration, our vet told us we&#8217;d be lucky if she survived another six months. The good news is, that was just about seven months ago now and she&#8217;s still reasonably healthy, happy, and affectionate. This wouldn&#8217;t be anything to take for granted even without that brush with death, given that she&#8217;s just over 19 years old now.  That&#8217;s an uncommonly long lifespan for a cat.</p>
<p>The bad news is, her latest bloodwork shows indications of slow-motion progressive renal failure. This is not a surprise; given her age and history we&#8217;re quite fortunate that it&#8217;s not <em>rapid</em> renal failure.  She yowls at night sometimes &#8211; not with nearly the frequency she did before the nephritis was diagnosed and cured, but enough that we know that not all is quite right in Sugar-land.</p>
<p>Other than that it&#8217;s not easy to tell that she&#8217;s a geriatric cat.  Eyes continue to be bright, coat continues to be glossy and full, the purr is ready and resonant, and she still clearly considers it an important part of her duties to greet humans at the door and charm all houseguests into worshipping her.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re trying to keep her hydrated, making sure she always has plenty of water and getting a subcutaneous hydration needle into her when we can manage it &#8211; which isn&#8217;t often as, while she doesn&#8217;t seem traumatized by it or particularly fearful of it, she definitely doesn&#8217;t like it.</p>
<p>Ah, and Sugar has materialized at my feet, making greeting noises.  This is not as coincidental as it sounds; when she&#8217;s not asleep she has a tendency to oscillate between Cathy and me, emitting happiness and (usually very polite) requests for attention. Which we are generally quite pleased to grant.</p>
<p>Time out for cat-petting&#8230;.</p>
<p>Not much news beyond this.  We&#8217;re enjoying Sugar&#8217;s company, and letting her enjoy ours, as much as we can.  Maybe it&#8217;s silly to imagine that keeping her happy and well-loved is extending her lifespan, but &#8211; hey, it seems to be working so far.</p>
