my kitten

 She started coughing.. I guess you could call it that. Cat's don't really cough, but it's hard to describe. Kind of a gasping like she was trying to make herself clear her throat. She didn't throw anything up and then one day she did.. but the coughing happened again. Same thing.. no vomit. One day she pooped out kind of like a string and we thought.. oh.. she ate a piece of yarn and it was stuck in her throat. But one day she was back to coughing again. We theorized it was because her kitty window was gone and she wasn't eating grass the way cat's eat grass. We thought it was a hairball and we bought chewy treats to help dissolve hairballs. She's lost weight. We chaulked it up to stress. First we took her to the vet and had her shots up to date.. then we brought home a new kitten. Then we left for Christmas. We took the kitten back, then kids stayed with us. The kitty window went away. It was just kitty trauma. The last thing we thought was.. she has a cold.

 

Today she went to the vet and we described the scenarios. She's gotten into the yarn or she has a hairball. An x-ray would tell us the story and we'd walk away with a special kitty food. I think we both felt sick when we saw the cloudy mass. The vet pointed it out. It was pushing on her lung and it wasn't a hair ball. It's a tumor. He said the C word. She's lost weight. About a pound in the last year. Now and ultrasound and a biopsy is needed. Maybe surgery. Maybe it can stay. Maybe it's begnign and maybe it's going to get worse. She went in to have her rabies shots updated and he said not to bother until we knew more.

We're both a bit sad here at Casa Yewell- Trainor. It's costly. It's sad. We're fond of our feline companion. We've been a trio for nearly 8 years. She has character and spunk. She curls up with you and put one paw up when she wants to have a petting. She hangs out with you and just wants to be in charge. Don't pick her up. Let her do her thing. Don't put her in a box to take her someplace.. just let her sit in your lap and she's fine.. She just wants to be in charge.. and while she's been minding her own business.. her little body is having an act of rebellion. We're going to cross each bridge as we come to it and make the best decisions we can and be there for Ruby as much as we can.