Rusty

I had to take our oldest cat to the vet today. Rusty is over thirteen years old now.... we don't know his exact age because when we found him (or when he found us) he was already over a year old, as estimated by the vet we took him to at the time to make sure he was a healthy cat.

And Rusty has been just that for all these years..... a healthy cat. He's an orange and white Manx, which makes him bigger than most male cats, and his adult weight always hovered around twenty pounds. Today, Rusty weighed seventeen pounds..... amazing to me that he had lost weight, considering how much he likes to eat.

But the weight loss isn't the worst of Rusty's problems today. Our vet, who is also our friend, told me this morning that Rusty has severe diabetes. His blood sugar count should be around 100, and Rusty's count was 375 today. Not a good thing.

I had noticed, these past couple of weeks, that Rusty was getting slower and slower. Which really didn't surprise me, because he had been slowing down a lot over these last couple of years, and we attributed it to old age and arthritis. However, being that I was so sick with the flu and I spent a lot of time on the sofa in the breakfast room, I was watching Rusty a lot as he made his way from the covered deck on the back porch to the grass of the backyard. Poor Rusty was having a real hard time with his back legs. He was still walking, and jumping up on the low table on the deck where his food dish is, but I just knew that something wasn't right with that cat.

The reason that I kept putting off the trip to the vet's office is that I just assumed that Rusty's problem was his arthritis, which the vet had diagnosed last year. So I figured the arthritis was getting worse. I called the vet's office yesterday, to ask if they could give me a pain medication for him. When I described to our friend the way Rusty was walking and standing, he asked me to bring him in so he could run a few tests.

The first test confirmed what our friend suspected..... diabetes. So there I was this morning, listening to our friend the vet tell me what we could expect to happen with a diabetic cat. And none of it was pretty, to say the least. He also reminded me that Rusty wasn't our only cat..... taking care of one diabetic cat, plus three other cats, plus the dog.... well, how many hours in a day did I have?

I came home with Rusty, to discuss the situation with my husband. I already knew what had to be done as I was driving home. I just wish that I had asked my husband to come to the vet's office with me this morning, because we could've made the decision right then and there. It would've given Rusty a little more dignity, because for the one time in all the years we've had this cat, he didn't get car-sick in his carrier during the drive to the vet's office today. And when we got to the office, he didn't howl his little whiskers off while we waited our turn. He just sat there in the carrier and he looked around the office as I told him "Don't worry, Rusty.... this is just one more little adventure."

Little adventure indeed. Tomorrow will be a big adventure. We will take Rusty back to the vet's office and have him "put to sleep." Such a proper little term, but the words are soothing. My husband and I cried a little bit this afternoon, but I'm sure all of this will be hitting home a little harder tomorrow when we drive to that office with Rusty for the last time.

It's for the best........ this will only get worse.... much worse. And Ive always been determined to do what's best for our pets, not for us. Keeping him alive on shots and insulin and special food and twice-weekly trips to the vet isn't the way to go...... not for a thirteen-plus-year-old cat. Even our vet said he wouldn't suggest doing that, but he would agree to do whatever we chose to do.

We're chosing to give Rusty a dignified goodbye, rather than a prolonged illness.