Dear Beloved One
I don’t have good news. After I wrote the “update” about Tap yesterday, things took a turn for the worse. To make the whole long story short, he was not recovering very well, and was under the Dr.’s watchful eye all day yesterday. The doctors noticed complications that eventually led us to discover that his kidneys weren’t working. The anestesia was too much for them this time, and they weren’t “waking up”, so-to-say.
He spent the entire night at the Pet E.R. again, with hours and hours of careful loving care by the wonderful vetrinarians there. They did everything that animal medicine can do to try to bring the kidneys back to life… they tried all night. We all knew the outlook was very dim. The fluids they had to give him to try to “jump start” the kidneys, along with the many many drugs, were just making him feel worse. The fluids were gathering elsewhere in his body, especially in his chest – making it harder to breath, since his kidneys would not wake up and process the fluids properly. At 5:00 this morning the vet called me to tell me what I already knew: his kidneys were not going to start working again, we had tried absolutely everything for as long as possible.
At that point it was only a matter of time before the fluids would build up too much in his body, and he would die a “not so pretty” death that way. Kidney failure isn’t pretty. So it was my very very hard decision to go in this morning, say goodbye, and have him put to sleep so his last moments didn’t have to be horrifying ones. So he could “fall asleep” peacefully, instead of suffer more.
When we got to the vet, he was having a hard time breathing from all the fluids gathered in his chest, but was so happy to see me. Steve and I cried with him and said our goodbyes and let him go in peace. It wouldn’t have been much longer for him to live anyway, with no kidneys. Putting him to sleep was the best choice – this way he went peacefully, in my arms, with my loving voice talking to him as he fell asleep, and with no pain.
So Tap has passed away. Steve & Bug (my other kitty – Taps bestest friend) & Me are dealing with this the best we can. We know that absolutely everything was done to save him, and that we did everything right his whole life to prevent this from happening – some things, like kidney failure, are unavoidable. He lived the most absolutely lovely, pampred, happy life of any cat ever. He went peacefully, and I know he wasn’t afraid to die. Taps only concern was for me, Steve & Bug, so we are going to do our best for him.
Tap is with Frank (my beloved uncle who passed away a few years ago, and loved cats just as much as I do) now, he’s frolicking outside in green grass, eating lots and lots of yummy treats, and doing all the things he couldn’t do on this earth. I know he’ll always be with me.
Thanks for all your support from the last post. Your kind thoughts mean the world to us.
