Feline Trouble

This is Jo-Jo. She has been with me for 13 years. She lasted longer than my marriage and I'm very, very attached to her.

She has stopped grooming and won't jump up on anything or climb stairs. Her abdomen has ballooned up.

I took her to the vet yesterday and he called today to tell me that she has diabetes. Her blood sugar is supposed to be 130 or so. It was over 700. I picked her up, got her prescription for insulin filled at the pharmacy and drove her home. The vet said that he thinks there is something else wrong with her because of all the excess fluid in her abdomen. If you look at the photo you can see how big her tummy has gotten. I've got to take her back to the vet next week for a follow-up.

I brought her home and took her to the food bowl. Then I went looking for Yogi. He's been an indoor cat since we've moved into my parent's home due to the divorce.

He's not in the house.

I can't find him. Yogi is GooseyGirl's kitty. She carries him around and keeps little kitty treats in her clothing drawer for him. She absolutely adores this cat.

I can't find him!!!

The kids are with their dad today and when they get back, GooseyGirl is going to be absolutely devastated. She tears up just thinking about life without him.

Life has been so unsteady and hard for these kids the past few months. She has reacted by absorbing every one's emotions and worrying for them. This isn't going to be easy for her.

Please, please hold a vision of him safe and in her arms. I'm hoping he just snuck outside and will be back before she returns from her visit with her dad today.

***********************UPDATE*************************
Seven hours went by and I still couldn't find Yogi. Every hour my mom and I would shake his little kitty treat jar and call for him. We tore apart the house looking for him. We walked around the neighborhood calling for him.

I finally decided that we had to eliminate the possibility that Yogi had died in the house. GooseyGirl simply couldn't be subjected to finding her kitty's body if he had perished somewhere in the house.

My mom and I steeled ourselves as we decided it was time to find the body.

However, we aren't very bendy.

There are lots of crevasses, underbed areas and general low lying pockets of darkness in the house. All of these places needed to be searched. But again, we aren't very bendy.

That's when it occurred to me that the two seven year olds across the street were very, very bendy. I thought that with a well placed flashlight, they could find the body. In fact, I had my hand on the doorknob ready to head out and ask their mom who was in the garden.

Thankfully I shared my plan with my mother.

!!!!!!

"You're going to ask our neighbor to have their kids do WHAT?!?", she exclaimed.

Hmmmm.... maybe that's not such a hot idea. I decided to take my mother's advice and bypass harassing small children that aren't blood related. On the positive side, I saved the neighbor's family from some unwanted mental health bills. That's good, right?

Meanwhile, I turned to begin my gruesome search.

I turned the corner into the hallway and guess who was looking at me?

YOGI!!!

He was standing there in the middle of the hallway, tail in the air, looking at me like, "You rang?"

Sigh... cat catastrophe averted and mental health of neighborhood children are safe.

I think I'm ready for a nap.

*************UPDATE*************
First dose of kitty insulin has gone well. JoJo was walking around and purring while I petted her.

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