...I misplaced an entire scene, over 1,500 words, for The Backup. Literally what I needed today.
My dad got two cats in 2011. Siegfried and Brunhilde, Siggy and Bruni, cousins. When my dad died, I took Siggy with me when I moved back to my mom's. It was a very hard move, for so many reasons, and Sig really helped make it better. He had to leave the only home he had ever lived in, two cats he knew, for a new place and two new cats. Then another new house, about three months later. That stress worsened his kidney disease, which he was originally in the early stages of and moving slowly through.
A month or two ago, we learned that he had it, and was over halfway through stage three and quickly progressing. My mom left all of the decisions regarding him up to me. I voted for painkillers, to make him comfortable, because the medications we could put him on had little chance of working, or at least working in time (the vet told us that we had a couple weeks to a few months, it was just a waiting game.) We had the option of a blood pressure pill, but we rent, and we promised the landlord when he begrudgingly let us keep the cats that we would keep the place clean. The BPM would’ve caused some accidents, and Sig was already having trouble with the litter box. But he’s very sensitive to the painkiller he was prescribed, and becomes intoxicated. Can’t walk very well because he's retaining so much water, and the other night he was catatonic. Fell asleep with his eyes open, shallow breathing, didn’t respond to my mom shaking him or lifting his head and letting it fall three times. We thought that night, a couple days ago, was going to be the last.
We took him to the vet today. He has an ear infection, a urinary tract infection, dementia (he bit me the other day, which he doesn’t do), a heart murmur (congestive heart failure is a sign of kidney failure), and is in the final part of stage three. He’s being put down this Thursday. And I’m really struggling. I need a fcking win.