My mom called me today to tell me that they had to put one of the cats to sleep. Hoodlum, affectionately called Hoody, was a handsome brown tabby I’ve known since the day he was born. That means that I first have to talk about Hoody’s mom.
She was an adorable Persian mix. My dad was visiting a friend that ran an auto repair shop out of his garage across the street from my grandma. A petite, fluffy, off-black cat with white paws came into view. My dad’s friend mentioned that the cat had been hanging around for a while and they watched her have a litter the year before. They also said that she had crossed their guard dog a couple times and the outcome had not been good. Being a closet cat-lover, my dad decided that he was going to give said cat to my mom for mother’s day.
She was very friendly and very sweet when he caught her, but her dark hair was dry and unhealthy and she was full of mats. Since we only had one cat and two dogs at the time, my mom happily accepted her mother’s day gift. We named her Liberty for the street on which she used to live and my mom took her to the vet for a check-up and some vaccines. Lo and behold, the discussion turned to spaying Liberty and the veterinarian told us that my mom was given an expectant mother for mother’s day. Wanting to foster the mind of their young future veterinarian, my parents decided we’d keep Liberty and give her babies away when she had them.
When she gave birth on June 30th, Liberty’s name was changed to Mommy Kitty. She had a litter of four: 2 boys and 2 girls. Since the other cat we had when we adopted Liberty had escaped and was nowhere to be found, my mom agreed to let me keep one of the kittens. I chose Hoody. My mom decided that Hoody couldn’t live without his brother, and so we kept Steely Dan, too.
Hoody was a trouble-maker. That is how he got his name. I had originally named him Sparkler, but my mom decided that he was more of a Hoodlum instead. He was the first kitten to figure out how to get out of the box, and he was always the first one at the dish when he and his siblings were starting to eat solid food. Hoody also learned that meowing was the way to get what he wanted, and that was a skill he perfected over his 15 year stint on Earth. He really was my little buddy. He slept with me every night while I still lived at home, and he was always happy to share my bed when I was home from college.
Sadly, Hoody’s kidney’s decided they didn’t want to work anymore. He stopped eating. The vet said that his kidneys felt really small and irregular and that he was pretty dehydrated. They could have bought him a little time with fluids and such, but the prognosis wasn’t good at all. The vet agreed that it was time. I’m sad to have lost a good friend.
I recommended that my mom take Steely Dan to the vet to get his kidney’s checked and to do some renal diagnostic bloodwork. I’m hoping that if he has some of the same changes Hoody had, we can get him on a kidney-friendly diet and perhaps make him more comfortable if his kidneys are changing, too. And let’s face it…his kidneys have probably already changed a bit over the years.
Here is my brief soapbox moment: Take your senior kitty to the veterinarian at least once per year and when the veterinarian recommends urine screening and senior bloodwork, please consider getting it done. Perhaps if we had caught Hoody’s renal insufficiency earlier, we could have bought him a little more time. I would really like to help push veterinary medicine in the direction of preventative care and management of conditions to give our furry friends the longest and healthiest (and most pain-free) lives possible.
