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at a cost which will give pain to my friends
Tuesday, 8 October 2013 12:15 pmI am desolated to report a tragic outcome to the Macavity saga. Our feeding-and-petting regime re-domesticated him with ridiculous speed, and for the last couple of weeks he slept happily on the sofa during the day and responded enthusiastically to attention with a gratifying lack of startle or slashing, and a growing tendency to head-butt the petter adorably in the ankle. Yesterday we stuck him into a box and took him off to see the Splendid Vet, an indignity to which he submitted with the utmost restraint and stoicism, thereby showing up our own feline tribe as a bunch of temperamental whingers.
One look from the vet, unfortunately, revealed that the black around his nose wasn't scabbing from the giant piratical slash across half his face; it was advanced squamous cell carcinoma, i.e. the same thing Golux has. The slash had also infected his eye and mouth. We didn't even go as far as FIV and FeLV testing; the vet's recommendation was to euthanase on the basis of the cancer alone, it being advanced enough that it would start affecting his quality of life almost immediately. Carlo and Karen having just gone through the nose cancer thing with one of their own cats, they have a very real understanding of the implications and agreed that it wouldn't be fair on them or the cat to try a necessarily temporary adoption. The same problem applies to allowing him to continue living with us: his presence in our house is becoming problematical, it's messing with the dynamic of the feline tribe, and honestly I can't bear to go through the whole lose-a-cat-to-cancer thing with one I've adopted basically for that purpose. It's going to be horrible enough with Golux. So, very sadly, we asked the vet to euthanase him yesterday evening.
I am trying very hard not to let this feel as though we betrayed him. He had a much better last month of existence with us looking after him than he would have had living a fugitive existence on the roof, and I think he was, in a rugged and slightly thuggish way, happy. Putting him down is saving him the very unpleasant experience of an aggressive cancer. We had a plan for him, we did all we could, and the dice fell against him. RIP Macavity. I hope he's happily stifling Pekes in a criminal feline paradise somewhere.
One look from the vet, unfortunately, revealed that the black around his nose wasn't scabbing from the giant piratical slash across half his face; it was advanced squamous cell carcinoma, i.e. the same thing Golux has. The slash had also infected his eye and mouth. We didn't even go as far as FIV and FeLV testing; the vet's recommendation was to euthanase on the basis of the cancer alone, it being advanced enough that it would start affecting his quality of life almost immediately. Carlo and Karen having just gone through the nose cancer thing with one of their own cats, they have a very real understanding of the implications and agreed that it wouldn't be fair on them or the cat to try a necessarily temporary adoption. The same problem applies to allowing him to continue living with us: his presence in our house is becoming problematical, it's messing with the dynamic of the feline tribe, and honestly I can't bear to go through the whole lose-a-cat-to-cancer thing with one I've adopted basically for that purpose. It's going to be horrible enough with Golux. So, very sadly, we asked the vet to euthanase him yesterday evening.
I am trying very hard not to let this feel as though we betrayed him. He had a much better last month of existence with us looking after him than he would have had living a fugitive existence on the roof, and I think he was, in a rugged and slightly thuggish way, happy. Putting him down is saving him the very unpleasant experience of an aggressive cancer. We had a plan for him, we did all we could, and the dice fell against him. RIP Macavity. I hope he's happily stifling Pekes in a criminal feline paradise somewhere.
Subject line quote from "The Final Problem", Sherlock's suicide note written shortly before plunging over the Richenbach Falls with Moriarty. It seemed appropriate. For a given and rather convoluted value of "appropriate".
