Golden Days for Angie

Our cat Angie is almost 17-years old. We got her from the Marin Humane Society when she was 2. Our daughters were 2 and 4 at the time, so they barely remember life without Angie.

In the first year or two after bringing Angie home, she would disappear for days at a time. She was an aloof cat, and living with preschoolers, gentle though they tried to be, may not have been her first choice. Once, she was gone for about two months! Of course, on the day I decided I might as well pack away her food bowl and litter box, she came sauntering up the sidewalk. But she came home gimpy. Apparently, she had broken her front leg sometime during her long absence. When I took her to the vet, he said that the leg had already healed in that position, so he would have to re-break it, then set it, but it might not be any better than it was now. So we left it alone, and Angie has never seemed to suffer from it. She could still run and jump, but if you look at her straight on as she approaches, you can see the left forward leg is a bit wonky.

A couple months ago, I switched Angie to Blue Buffalo cat food. She LOVED it and seemed to eat much more heartily (she also started drinking out of Cabana's water dish on a regular basis). She has always been a skinny thing, even though she free feeds. But suddenly, she started getting fat. We all thought it was funny that little Angie had eaten herself into the shape of a beach ball.

But a few other signals told us that things weren't going so well in Angie's body and that her big tummy was not funny ha-ha but funny in a bad way. I took her to the vet last Monday, and he confirmed that her organs were shutting down. Her tummy was bloated with fluids, due to her poorly functioning kidney and liver. By palpating her abdomen, he said he could feel tumors growing there, most likely cancerous.

Angie has lived through a lot. Both my daughters considered Angie their "best friend" when they were little. After 3 years, Angie has come to accept Cabana as her good friend (perhaps best friend would be an exaggeration). The photo above was taken shortly after Cabana came to us as a curious puppy, and the photo below was shot this past year. Angie has endured our foster dogs, mostly by making herself scarce during their stays. For years, she kept our house rodent-free, leaving us her spoils of battle in the yard.

Old age and sickness have actually made Angie much more affectionate. Previously, she only tolerated my company. Now, she eagerly sits on my lap when I sit down to watch TV. It's nice, albeit selfish, that I'm able to enjoy her more during these last days and months than I have in all her previous years combined.

Last week, the vet said it wasn't Angie's time to go yet. He said her heart sounded good, and as long as she will eat and drink, we should keep her comfortable and happy. She isn't in any pain, thank goodness. Every day, I watch her eat a few teaspoons of her soft canned food (she can't chew dry kibble anymore), then she goes outside to sit in the garden for a few hours. I know she appreciates the warmth of the sunshine, and I wonder if she enjoys the flowers. One day soon, we'll be saying goodbye, but until then, I'll feed her whatever she'll eat, let her sit wherever she wants, and be thankful that she's with us one more day.