The devil is in the details.

A few days ago I decided to stop researching Mungo's kidney disease on my own and joined an online community for feline CRF. I'd wanted to get some labs on him to see about proper dosing for the aluminum hydroxide powder, and when I saw that the groups were so full of knowledgeable people who could decipher the numbers, I went ahead and made the appointment. Right about that time Mungo took a bit of a downturn, and happened to be feeling poorly when I took him in for the blood work yesterday.

Well, the labs came back today and boy, do they look like crap. I got the fax at work and was sure I'd come home to see Mungo un- or barely- conscious, suffering in his little hidey place. Instead I come back to see him fussing for more food and looking no worse than he did yesterday. Last night he bolted on me after only about 50ml of fluid, probably because Zoe was circling and trying to horn in on the attention her uncle Manwich has been receiving. But he accepted a little over 150ml this morning before I went to work, so that helped I'm sure.

Practically everything that shouldn't be is elevated, and while the vet doesn't think he has much longer, he wants to treat the apparent infection that is the greatest threat to our boy.

I'm putting the labs up here since I can't post them in the CRF group page--not of general interest but anyway...

Today a stray memory resurfaced... a few Novembers ago, I mistook a leftover Halloween pumpkin we'd moved around to the back steps for what I believed to be Mungo waiting to come in. I don't know why it made me smile.

Hope he feels better in the morning.

Little orange gourd.

We now return to Barefoot in the Park...

Mungo has been stuck of his own volition in the basement for a couple of months now, so we decided to take him outdoors to enjoy a warm autumn day. Once we realized he'd gone deaf we understood better why he would want to be in highly controlled circumstances like his basement studio apartment, but with both of us there and the excellent camouflage of leaves to keep him safe, we thought it might be acceptable. He wasn't as freaked out as we thought he might be, though it might be overkill to say he "enjoyed" it:





Later, a package arrived containing aluminum hydroxide powder, which is a type of antacid and phosphorus binder that is regarded as better than other similar medicines for cats with kidney disease. I got it because he had started rejecting food with the Epakitin mixed in, and he seems to know when something isn't treating him right. After the excitement in the yard, Mungo got his first couple of doses of the AH and *incredibly*, seems to be feeling better already. So maybe there are a few more sunny days out in the big wide world in store for him. I hope so.

Big day for the orange kitty.

"Sir, did anyone else help you unpack today?"

Let's just say the fluid reduction experiment didn't go so well... and since it was me who got us into the jam, I'll let you guess who had to do the heavy lifting on getting us out.

On the bright side, when I got home from work Mungo seemed to be feeling a little better and most importantly, had finished a whole 3oz can of food, a real appetite improvement over the last few days. Brought him more of the Evanger's Organic Turkey and Butternut Squash, which he was glad to see.

As promised, he's back on nightly fluids now, like it or not... but I think he prefers getting hydrated through the shoulder area to this morning's version, despite how surprisingly cooperative and patient he was. The process was heavily improvised and he really put up with a lot from me in the end. Thank heavens it actually did him some good.

Dam Quail

I'm glad to report that Mungo continues to improve. He's been getting neem bark tea once every other day, slippery elm gruel with water chasers two or three times a day, and is eating the Merrick Thanksgiving Day Dinner and Grammy's Pot Pie in turns, with good appetite. He has not been tolerating sub-cutaneous fluids very well, though; he's been bolting on me mid-drip and complaining a lot before and during. I don't know if it's scar tissue at the needle site or irritation around his torso from where the fluid collects under his skin, but I made him a deal that if he kept eating and going twosies and generally lookin' good, I'd tentatively reduce his fluids to every other day... in exchange, he'd have to sit still for two entire units each time and also put up with me giving him extra water by mouth on off days. Dr. M doesn't know about this blog and he'd tear me a new one if he saw that I was easing up on the fluids, but this has become a quality of life compromise. Let's just keep it between us, shall we? And I promise you and Dr. M and the surly orange cat himself that I'll start sticking him every day again as soon as he starts to lag.

Cats with kidney disease need special diets, and while there is an ongoing debate about low-protein vs. regular levels of high quality protein, it's generally agreed upon that the KD diet must have reduced phosphorus, which the kats can't eliminate properly. Generally, this means little to no fish and mostly chicken or turkey formulas of wet food, which are typically lower in phosphorus. Ultimately, it's a balance between what is within the acceptable range of nutrients and what the cat will eat, since inappetance is one of the major problems with feline KD. After Mungo stopped eating the one brand of prescription kidney food he'd been tolerating (Royal Canin LP), I went to a local pet boutique several weeks ago in search of premium foods to try enticing him with, which is how I discovered the Merrick. I'd heard about the grain-free theory for cats, and picked up an assortment of grain-free cans, including Evanger's Turkey and Butternut Squash (which we'll be trying again), Merrick's Grammy's Pot Pie and Turducken (former popular, latter Not So Much), and the Merrick Before Grain foods, which contain nothing but the meat listed on the label; I got the BG turkey and quail, and Mungo seemed to go for the quail in such a big way I ordered piles more of it for him from PetFoodDirect. Only basic fat/protein info is listed on the label but I assumed that quail, being poultry, must be like chicken and turkey and thus a good low-phosphorus choice. And you know what they say about assuming... though in my defense, most of you would have thought that too, right? Turns out all squab is not the same.

Last week I requested nutritional data from Merrick on all their foods, hoping to find more suitable entrees to broaden Mungo's culinary horizons so he wouldn't get bored with the few things he was gladly eating. I got a great spreadsheet-style summary of the nutrient breakdown back from Merrick customer service today, and lo and behold the quail is THE highest-phosphorous food in the list! Far and away, too, much worse than the salmon and tuna. I hadn't looked into quail but apparently they have some sort of special need for calcium and phosphorous and have evolved a system that metabolizes these two minerals with high efficiency. Quail breeders feed their stock a diet high in C and P, and the meat and eggs are high in both.

I am still learning how to read all this stuff... the calcium to phosphorus ratio is also important, and you sometimes have to convert As Fed values to Dry Matter using the moisture percentages, and when I get a handle on what the numbers mean (with the help of a slide rule and a box of NoDoz) I'll be sure to share it here. But one thing's for sure, the levels of calcium and phosphorus in the quail are simply way too high for a kidney cat, and really any older cat, to be eating.

Anyway, Mungo started shirking the quail on his own recently so I guess that's good. Maybe his instincts told him he felt crappy after eating it, maybe he just got tired of it. Now I have to find someone locally who's maybe fostering kittens and lactating momma cats, since according to this article the quail would probably be excellent nutrition for those stages of cat life.

Speaking of kitten fostering, lalalaurie over at The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee made my day by posting about poo. Which means I'm not an isolated nut case for writing about Mungo's poo the other day! Still a nut case, just not an isolated one. Small blessings etc. etc. If you haven't visited the IBKC you should do so with all haste. It's one of the few things in life that restores my faith in my own species while completely gratifying my love for Felis Catus. Plus, she has a fantastic eye. The color and composition alone are worth the price of admission, even if you were not subject to incapacitation by a need to Keeeees Eeeeeeet! when you see photos of adorable smalls. And if you're not, what the hell is the matter with you?!? Is freon coursing through your veins?

Tomorrow, Manwich hits the scales. Stay tuned.

Pabulum Fabulum

I've mentioned my fondness for using herbal support for cats when appropriate, and have also mentioned that this blog is not intended to dispense medical advice and that I'm not a medical or veterinary professional. (Repeat as needed.) I thought I'd explain a little about Why and How I select certain herbs for use.

I learned a lot about herbs when I didn't have health insurance, which amounted to years of my adulthood. I learned that you have to check multiple sources and not accept the first reference to an herb you may find. Look for lab research when available, and know your own limits; if you don't have the patience to read and reason it out, go to someone with experience. The internet has made it much easier to compare differing viewpoints and that's very helpful, if you can distinguish useful warnings from anti-naturopath scare screeds. I apply these same principles to researching herbs and supplements for our cats, and although not all human-safe herbs are cat-safe, in some cases I have found it safe and applicable to use something on Mungo that I've used for myself.

One such herb is slippery elm bark, and (like neem) it is inexpensive, has been used safely on humans and domesticated animals for centuries, and has so far been a good thing for Mungo. I had only used slippery elm myself in throat remedies (I used to get strep throat constantly) but had not realized its value for digestive problems. So Mungo helped me add another useful herb to my list. Since it helps both underactive and overactive bowels, it will be a fine thing to have on hand.

The link provided above will give you all the info you need, but in short the powdered inner bark of the slippery elm can be made into a thin gruel that contains some nutrition, a little gentle fiber, a lot of mucilage (which soothes the tissue it contacts, thus the whole digestive tract), and is not unpleasant to taste. I've seen multiple mentions of it for feline kidney disease, and wish I'd found it sooner.

Although slippery elm is available in capsules very cheaply, these often contain added ingredients, which you don't want. I asked Nature's Way whether the magnesium stearate listed in Other Ingredients (for their brand and others I found) was in the capsule itself or the contents, and got this response;

"Magnesium stearate is used as a flow agent and is mixed in the Slippery Elm. Nature's Way uses magnesium stearate from a vegetarian source."

This makes sense, because the pure, no-additives bulk powder is a bit clumpy, so the mag. stearate probably makes for easier capsuling. I'm sure it's fine for People Purposes, but apparently it is important to use unadulterated slippery elm when making the gruel for pets. I had to look around to find it in bulk locally, but when I did it was very inexpensive, and I was able to get a small quantity. It's not hard to find the bulk powder by the pound online, but a tiny bit goes a looong way and a pound would be serious overkill.

The way I make the gruel is to put a smidge of it in a cook-safe glass measuring cup, add filtered or distilled water, and nuke it in the microwave a minute at a time until it boils, then 30-second intervals for about three more minutes, stirring well with a fork between nukes and adding a little water as necessary to replace what steams off. The slow, long cook and regular stirring with a whisk or fork causes the slippery elm to thicken and expand into a liquid with body to it. Recipes vary on how much powder/water to use, but I am erring on the thin side these days (1/8th teaspoon or less to a quarter cup of water for a small batch) as I believe I made it too thick at first, possibly creating a bulk issue for Mungo. Cats in his condition often have insufficient muscle to move substantial 'material' through their abdomens and ([low bowel motility]+[lots of fiber])=[boa constrictor struggling down a Volkswagen]. (Don't ask me how I know.)

The gruel can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days (up to 10 by some reports), and I find a 1ml dropper to be the easiest way to administer it. I assume shorter storage time as I'm sometimes redipping the dropper during application, but I do wash it out after each use.

I made some thin SlipGruel for Mungo yesterday morning and decided if he wasn't going to eat I'd give him lots of it, as a recovery meal as it's sometimes used instead of as a small-dose tummy tonic. At least he'd be getting some nutrition from it. He got two meals of about 5-6 droppers yesterday, and one this morning. He consented to eat a little of the Merrick Grammy's Pot Pie for me last night, and has done respectable damage to a 3oz can of the Merrick Before Grain quail this morning. He would probably eat tuna and salmon if he had an arrow sticking out of his side as he *adores* fish, but generally he can get down a little quail even if he's having trouble with multi-ingredient, full nutrition cat foods. More on what Mungo is eating in another post.

So once again, Manwich Bounces Back, or seems to be.

Water Boy

Last month, I got sick for a couple of weeks and Mungo went almost five whole days without getting subcutaneous fluids, which he was supposed to be getting about every other day. I almost coralled him up to do it a couple of times but he was eating well and seemed comfortable, and at that point we were still having trouble making ourselves do it at all. The idea of stabbing him in the back with a needle made us both so anxious it made Mungo anxious too, and that made him very vocal about the needle insertion, much more so than I'd seen him be when getting fluids at the vet. I supposed I was doing a bad job of it, my husband felt it was cruel (even if it does make Mungo feel better), and so we were both avoidant of the duty.

Then he started having severe trouble pooing, as mentioned, and also started vomiting again, which had not been much of a problem since the thyroidectomy. He had been eating Royal Canin Feline LP packets (wet kidney diet) with relish, but had stopped eating those altogether and become very picky just before this. Poor Mawich got an enema at the vet that didn't help much, and after a day or two with dark stools and vomiting he was diagnosed with a GI bleed. Dr. M recommended Pepsid AC but I knew that neem worked well for Mungo's acid stomach in the past, so I went that route, with quick results. I also started giving him slippery elm gruel, which is not as strange as it sounds; a good page on its use for cats can be found here. Mungo gets a large dropper of each daily, neem bark in the AM and slippery elm in the PM, with a delay after both before giving food to allow it into his system. Though it was a rough week or so poo-wise for everyone concerned, he gradually improved.

He also had to start getting sub-cutaneous fluids every day at this point, and for about three weeks did very well on this routine. We started warming up the bags and wrapping him in a warm towel out of the dryer and it got so I could even give him fluids by myself. In fact, to save money I ordered several sets of lactated ringer solution and lines and needles from Drs. Foster and Smith. I realize now how much faith I had that Mungo would live at least a few more weeks. Today I'm not so sure, but then we've been here before, and Mungo has so often surprised us in the past.

He has not been eating much these last two days and seems quite pained by the fluids now. I'm trying a smaller gauge needle (20 instead of 18) and it hurts him a little less going in but takes longer to get 2 units into him, and he seems to find the 'water-boob' that collects on his side uncomfortable, which is new. I guess I'd be getting tired of it too. We thought maybe he would require fluids less often if he put a little weight back on, but without eating enough that won't happen. Nothing appeals to him now except fish, which he isn't supposed to have anymore as it's high in phosphorous. And he is allowing only limited petting and cuddling.

He seems to be in pain, and that is the line I drew for myself on whether or not it was getting close to time for the final vet visit. So this may end up being a short-lived blog, after all.

Let's hope not, though.

Everybody Poops (sometimes)*

If the title has not sufficiently warned you, this post will deal with the wrong end of our feline friends (or as my husband would say, Offal... Just Offal). Yes, I made a few clinical references to stools in my prior two posts but today will discuss cat poop in more subjective language. I wasn't sure, since as mentioned this is my first blog, whether salty topics like this qualify The Isle of Manwich as "adult content", so I guess we'll see.

Mungo was an indoor/outdoor cat until this summer when a crisis resulted in a thyroidectomy. The basement is where we sequester cats with stitches or who need to be isolated from food before vet visits, and usually whenever Mungo had to stay down there he was always rabid to get out, hanging around by the door and taking a chainsaw to our ankles to get past us. One reason: he hates the litterbox, and prefers to go outside.

Well, after the thyroidectomy he was so exhausted and frail he didn't care about getting out of the basement anymore, just staying in the dark under the futon or other safe hidey-places. (It turned out he'd gone deaf too, though we didn't realize it until he was in constant care.) And he hit the box like gangbusters, peeing (as kidney cats do) in considerable volume. Since, like The Biscuit on Ally McBeal, The Manwich prefers 'a clean bowl', I was pretty busy scooping up after him to keep things civil, and eventually switched over to an Omega Paw rolling model. I have to say that it has made life a lot easier. The large model seems about right for our now-scrawny old man and I think the regular size would only work for very small cats and kittens.

Lately, as either the KD or just old age has made it difficult for him to poop, Mungo has taken to going on the floor if he finds that a lot of straining is involved. He's been pretty good about using the puppy training pads I lay down by the litterbox on days when I can't check the box frequently, but sometimes if he's really having a tough time of it he ends up mincing around the basement until finally something happens, wherever it may. So I've learned to turn all the lights on when I go downstairs, as our basement floor is conveniently cat-poop brown (it's a dark brown acid stain finish with natural variations, so it's excellent camouflage).

Yesterday I came down to check on Mungo and was taken aback by just such a poo. Without going into detail, it was far too large to have come out of any domestic felid. I actually turned my head and looked around by reflex, disbelieving that Mungo was responsible, like maybe I'd see a sheepish railroad tramp crouched behind the gas boiler or something. It really took a second to sink in, and once it did a wave of sympathy hit. It's no fun to carry all that around, and it can't have been easy to divest himself of. Frankly he deserves credit to stay in as good a mood as he has lately.

My husband has no such sympathy for me, since one of our other cats (Bumper) has a litterbox problem where over a year ago she started going just outside the box, on the floor, so we had lots of puppy training pads on hand well before Mungo needed them. Because the box is in his office, he's usually stuck with the task of cleaning all that up. Now Mungo keeps me in similar occupation. We were observing this morning that cleaning up cat poop is almost all we do anymore.

I still hope Mungo will improve enough to start going back outside once in a while (for his own sake, not mine), but it seems unlikely. I tried to take him out on a sunny day recently and he freaked out and couldn't wait to come back in. So I will be rollin' the Omega for a while yet. And when I don't have to anymore (for whatever reason) I'll work on retraining Bumper to start using the box again, or maybe at least the cat flap. She is mostly blind and a little addled, so it takes time to teach her new things.

But they can learn, with persistence and positive reinforcement. It was Mungo's insistence on going potty outdoors, and his habit of waking my husband up at 3am to do so, that made me first put in the cat flap and then, after months of him ignoring it, to begin a program of treats, assisted flap openings and praise that had him coming and going on his own steam in less than two weeks. That may have been my proudest accomplishment of 2007, and I have a decent arsenal of tricks my own self, so that's saying something.


* with apologies to Michael Stipe

Captain Neem-O

I am something of an herbal geek, and get excited when I find something particularly useful or interesting. I confess to being a spazz when it comes to neem. For years I had a vague notion of it as an agricultural product but had no further information on it until several months ago. Although many topical products, like creams and shampoos, containing neem have become more common, this very useful tree is still not well understood, at least in the US or maybe in the west period.

It bears repeating that I am not a health or veterinary professional and am not dispensing medical advice in this blog. I am only sharing my own usage experiences and relaying information about herbs and nutrition according to my own understanding.

Neem is an evergreen tree native to India and the surrounding region. It can thrive despite difficult and dry conditions, and resists pests, which begins to hint at its uses. One source of confusion about neem is that the three most commonly used parts are used differently.

Neem oil comes from the fruits and seeds of the tree. It is used agriculturally as a natural pesticide and on people (and animals) usually as a topical (not usually orally ingested) treatment for healing irritated skin and also repelling and killing pests, like lice and mosquitoes. It is also, like the other parts of the tree, antifungal and antibacterial. For these reasons, it is included in soaps and lotions for lice, acne, eczema and other skin irritations. It smells absolutely awful in its pure form, but I have found it very useful for cats who have irritable skin in the summer from fleas or have bad skin reactions to the pharmaceutical flea drops that are usually applied between the shoulders. I put a few drops of neem oil in the same place on two of my cats about once a week, with good results.

Neem leaf also has pest repelling properties, and the dry ground leaves can be sprinkled in the garden to inhibit pests and fungus. It is also used for stomach upsets and to calm hypertension and racing heartbeats. Neem leaf is available in capsule and gelcap form and I personally discovered that it was as effective as omeprazole (generic Prilosec) without side effects and is less expensive to boot, for my acid reflux. Whole dried leave are available, which can be boiled for a tea, which can be used internally or externally. The tea is bitter tasting, but I've used it as an eye wash for cats and as a way to administer it orally to cats, for example Mungo (who cannot be pilled in the same way that Houdini could not be held by chains. I would give him the miniscule gelcaps and rub his throat and chase it with dropperfuls of water and still I would find the thing an hour or so later by the food dish or on the floor, all earning him an additional nickname of "McMurphy".). Neem leaf extract is also available in an alcohol tincture but these are, I learned the hard way, not a good idea for animals More on this as I describe Mungo's experiences below. Acording to the literature, an additional benefit of neem leaf is stabilization of glucose levels, which makes it a benefit to diabetics-however none of my human or feline family members suffer from this problem, so I cannot attest personally to its effects in this area.

Neem bark can be used internally the way neem leaf can, but has properties more specific to digestive disorders (with research demonstrating benefits to ulcers) and also has shown , in lab rats, the ability to inhibit thyroid function, which does not heal the cause of hyperthyroidism but can help treat the symptoms. Neem bark is also useful in dental hygeine, specifically for gum disease. Neem bark is harder to come by than the leaf and oil, but it is possible to order the powder in bulk and make tea or capsules from it. I have been giving it to Mungo lately instead of the neem leaf tea as it is more helpful for the stomach while being less objectionable in taste. I hope that neem bark will soon become more widely available in capsule form, like neem leaf.

When Mungo was having "Freakout Times" during his hyperthyroidism, I found that neem leaf invariably helped him calm down and reduced his vomiting. Trial and error taught me that making a tea of neem leaf and giving it by dropper was the easiest and safest way to get it into his system. He was never able to tolerate the thyroid pills (methimazole) Dr. M prescribed, fighting them violently and often choking them back up. The neem leaf alcohol tinctures also helped the hyperactive attacks but caused him to salivate horribly, and of course the alcohol was terrible for the latent kidney disease. The best treatment was the tiny gelcaps of 'supercritical' neem leaf extract, which did not need to be given as often as teas or tinctures. I didn't discover neem bark until later, after his thyroidectomy.

When Mungo's kidney problems resulted in a GI bleed recently, with dark vomiting and dark stools and constipation, I started giving him neem tea again, first neem leaf but then switching to the bark after a little more reading. It quickly reduced his stomach acids and his stools were back to normal in about four days. Neem bark seems to work very well for feline GI support and, though I didn't know it, is more suited to hyperthyroid problems as well. If I had it to do over again I would have used neem bark tea from the beginning with Mungo, instead of neem leaf. I certainly don't know that it would have made the thyroidectomy unnecessary but there's a chance it might have delayed the need for it, and been more tolerable for him to take flavor-wise.

For the last few weeks, Mungo gets about a 1-ml dropper of neem bark tea a day, and his eyes are washed once or twice a day with neem leaf tea warmed in the microwave for five seconds on a well-dampened tissue. The severe weight loss that accompanies thyroid and kidney disease can make a cat's eyes to get sunken and not drain properly, causing irritation and mucous buildup. The eye cleaning helps keep him comfortable, and since it no doubt reminds him of a maternal kitty tongue-cleaning he also seems to find it comforting.

Mungo also gets slippery elm these days, which will be part of another post. And he also took some proprietary herbal blends for cancer and hyperthyroidism early on, which I will discuss in yet another post. I wanted to talk about neem's various forms and properties in this particular post, as I have found it so useful and cost-effective for myself and for our cats, especially Mungo.

In Which an Improbably Resilient Feline is Diarized

This is my first blog, and yes, it is about a cat. Knowing my habits it will likely end up being about other things too, but primarily it is designed to share the history and status of Mungo, a neutered orange tabby now 18 years old and living with kidney disease.

Mungo has lived through so many health problems now it's hard to fathom how he's made it this far, except that he is too annoying (and it is to be admitted, Too Beloved) to pass quietly. Three or four years ago he had two tumors removed, one on his shoulderblade that was a benign but infiltrative lipoma, and a small, hard granular one on the top of his head that he obtained a somewhat indecent thrill from when rolled between the fingers (which came to be known as "The Erogenous B-B"). The B-B was malignant, but easy to remove. The surgeon believed the infiltrative lipoma would probably return, as it was difficult to excise, but it never did.

Last year, in spring 2008, I felt a sort of lump under his chin, and after a painful biopsy Mungo was diagnosed with lymphoma. Our wonderful and talented vet offered to treat him with chemotherapy out of the vet's office, an option that was significantly more affordable than driving him out of town for radiation therapy and easier to live with than doing nothing to treat it. Through treating Mungo in this manner, with a rotation of chemo injections and pills, he was actually blazing a bit of a trail and maybe helping other cats and vets form a treatment strategy for lymphoma. In truth, Dr. M's hopes for Mungo's recovery were probably not great--he was already 16 going on 17 and had signs of hyperthyrodism and impaired kidney function. And due to some scheduling delays a few months into treatment his chemo ended early, which almost certainly meant the cancer would return. But, like the infiltrative lipoma, it has not.

In spring 2009 when the hyperthyroidism became unmanageable, Mungo got a thyroidectomy, and as is often the case with older cats this caused his kidney function to worsen. Hyperthyroidism causes increased blood flow to the kidneys and other organs, masking and somewhat ameliorating any disease there. So, after the thyroidectomy he felt better for about a week and then began to decline again as the kidney disease took hold, and now he is in his own assisted living facility in the basement where I check on him several times a day and minister to his fuzzy needs. I give him subcutaneous fluids (something I thought I'd never do), wash his eyes, keep fresh towels for him, and smooch his poor deaf head whenever he will let me.

This caretaking has become a big part of my day, and so I blog.

Having always been interested in natural and alterative therapies, I have augmented Dr. M's excellent care over the last couple of years with herbal supplements, with varying degrees of success. I've learned a lot, tried a lot, and hope that my experiences taking care of this kitty might come in handy for others. I am not a health or veterinary professional and do not intend to dispense advice on this blog! This is just Mungo's story, and what has worked, or not, for him may not apply to your cat.

Manwich is but one of Mungo's many nicknames (it seems that most cats, like dieties and devils, are known by multiple epithets), and now that he lives on his own in the basement, separate by his own choice, he is sort of an island. So that's what that's about.

I know it must sound to some as if we are constantly reanimating a lifeless bag of cat bones, and I am sure most people would not have done what we have. It has been expensive, but not as expensive as some might think; it has been difficult, and I wonder now if I would have done it all over the same way, being wiser. We are childless, yes, by choice, but we are not the kinds of people who dress our cats up (Mungo is one of four) and plan to leave them control of our meager estate when we die. We have come close to asking Dr. M to make the sad pilgrimmage to our home and put Mungo down, it just hasn't seemed right. Maybe it never will, but I trust my own compassion to know when he is suffering too much to keep him with us any longer, and maybe knowing that time might not be far off is Why This Blog. Nothing like spreading the cheer of the heartrending decision to euthanize a beloved companion.

Mungo is not the sweetest cat, and that too may raise the question of why we go to these lengths. All I can say is; when he came to live with us, he had never been a lap cat, but (and forgive me being maudlin) one day he decided to let me be his mommy. He put his trust in me, and soon slept on the bed with us and nuzzled my hair with the barest purr. He tells me when something is wrong, though I can't always decipher what the problem is. But he trusts me to help him, to be his advocate and his voice.

Our other cats are much freer with their love, and that is not unappreciated. But Mungo's trust is rare, and hard-won. And I just don't want to betray it.

So let this be a tribute to Manwich, the brave and tough orange tabby, and maybe also a comfort to others who are caring for ailing pets. I will strive to keep the posts not-too-frequent, not-too-sappy, and substantive.

Manwich welcomes you to his island. Now go get him some grain-free quail, and be quick about it.