The best Yule present my wife and I are getting this year is that our beloved cat Sugar is not dying.
Since her medical crisis in September that hasn’t been anything we could take for granted. She bounced back amazingly afterwards, but the vet’s sober best guess at the time was that she’d be lucky to live another six months.
That was a little under three months ago. But she seems extremely healthy – lively, sociable, inquisitive, eyes bright, fur glossy and tail held high. One of the blog’s regulars was visiting this weekend and remarked that Sugar didn’t even seem elderly.
The cat in question materialized under my desk a few moments ago to nuzzle my foot and meow companionably at me. Now, after a nice ear-scratching, she’s padding over to Cathy’s office, probably to do likewise. She’s happy. She’s good at happy. And, it would seem, at being indestructible…
Well, we’ll see. We’re supposed to take Sugar back for another sonogram soon. I’m worried about those apparent hepatic cysts that showed up on the last one; they could do her in even if the nephritis stays beaten.
But whatever may be wrong with Sugar, she’s clearly not in pain or weakened. She’ll be with us for a while yet, doing what she does best – purring at her humans, guarding them from the insidious bathroom demon, curling up next to us at night to sweeten our dreams, making us proud every time she welcomes a houseguest to our home.
The best Christmas wish I can think of for all of you out there is this: may you have a blessing in your life as lovely as our cat – and the wisdom not to take it for granted while it lasts.