Maybe it’s because I’m an only child, but I’ve always felt that our pets were much more than just that that. So, whenever pets of ours have died, it always hits me rather hard and I feel that I haven’t taken care of them as well as I could have. These are the events of the last few days.
Watson was our loving, goofy, laid-back, OCD, weird oriental short-hair. He was born August 9, 1994 and died February 9, 2007. We will miss him greatly. It’s so hard to believe that he won’t be sitting at his place on the kitchen rug waiting to be fed or curling up and snoozing in the sun with his half-brother Zemo. Never again will he take off running in a fit of cat crazies. I won’t see his little tummy pooch swinging side to side as he’s running! I’m going to miss scratching him and watching the base of his tail ‘side-poof’ and reach higher to the tip of his tail as he enjoys it more and more. I’m never going to figure out why he licked my mouse, keyboard, and chair arms. I’m only going to see that crooked smile in pictures. I’ll only remember the way he went from lap to lap of people that were visiting. There’s never going to be another Watson.
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning (2/7/07) Xander woke up coughing and so we went into the kitchen and had a little bit of Sierra Mist to stop the coughing. We then went to sit in the nursing chair to rock and fall back to sleep. Both Watson and Zemo were sitting in the chair, so I scooted them over a little and sat down. Surprisingly, Zemo stayed for a little while and then when Xander started moving a little, He hopped down. Watson stayed. After awhile Xander changed positions in my arms so that his legs were laying on Watson. Watson didn’t seem to mind. After a bit I needed to change postions and I was scooting Watson off the chair and he made a sound that I’ve never heard him make… it was like a growl! I scooted him again and he made the sound again and hopped down. I thought that it was odd, but went back to rocking Xander and trying to get him to sleep. He finally drifted off and I put him back in his crib and went to bed.
When we all got up in the morning we noticed that Watson was acting a little odd and there was a spot where a cat urinated on the carpet on the way to the litter box. He was kind of hovering while he was eating and walking around gingerly… like he was sore. Nelson went on to work and throughout the day I kept an eye on Watson and Xander’s fever. Just the day before Xander had a fever of 103°. Xander seems to take after me in that I very rarely ever get fevers, so I was a bit concerned! Thankfully it only lasted about a day and Xander never really seemed sick (except for the constant humming that he does when he doesn’t feel well or is tired). When it was time for Xander and I to take a nap our usual routine is to go into the bedroom, Xander closes the blinds and shuts the door and I check for kitties (usually Watson) under the covers and I usher them out of the room. This time I let Watson stay under the covers since he wasn’t feeling well and we all took a nice nap together. When we got up from our nap, Watson was still acting peculiar. I gave him some of his wet food/water mixture as always since he was wanting to eat. He lets me know that he wants to eat by his quiet almost subliminal meows and sitting in ‘his’ spot on the kitchen rug. When I put the food out I could tell that Watson could smell it and he began walking toward it, but went to the dry food bowl instead. I moved his head toward the wet food and said here it is Watson and he began eating it. I thought that it was very odd that it was like he couldn’t see it.
Later on I sat in the nursing chair and held Watson for a while and then when I got up to make dinner I left him in the chair. He stayed there for many hours. He sat there in positions that were odd for him.
Later that night about 10:30 I told Nelson that I thought we should really take Watson to the Vet because Watson was still behaving oddly and was beginning to shiver/quiver. I was really worried about him. So even though Nelson had to get up very early for work he took Watson to an after hours emergency vet hospital. He called after they were seen and said that Watson had exploded from both ends on the way there and that the towel in the cat carrier wouldn’t be coming back. He also said that the technician had said that they were ‘stinky’! They did some blood work on Watson and gave him a catheter to give him some IV fluids. He stayed overnight. They required him to be picked up at 7:30am since they close at 8am and to be transferred to our regular vet.
Xander and I got up at 6am… I had planned to let Xander sleep while I got ready, but Xander had other ideas. He woke up and was wanting to nurse, but I had to keep telling him that we couldn’t because we had to go get kitty. Daddy took kitty to the doctor last night because he was sick and we needed to go get him. Xander was just whining that he wanted to sleep. I finally finished getting ready and gave Xander some breakfast which seemed to help his mood. I grabbed a towel for the carrier and we managed to leave not too late and traffic wasn’t too bad.
We only got there a bit late!
We picked up Watson and he looked a bit stronger, but still kind of drunk. We took him to our regular vet and on the way there he threw up. When we got to the vet we went into the exam room and waited for a quite a while because the Vet was running late. Watson didn’t want to come out of the carrier, which was unusual for him. He was just staring even when I would get right in front of him he would just stare. While waiting for the Vet there were several times that he almost stepped off the exam table like he couldn’t see that he was close to the edge! It was so hard to try and keep Watson comforted and Xander corralled! Xander was getting so tired by this point I just had to hold him to keep him happy. The Vet thought that Watson had facial nerve paralysis because of his ‘crooked smile’, but I told him that he’s always been like that. I explained what had been going on and that I thought that maybe Watson couldn’t see. He put Watson on the floor and dropped a few cotton balls in front of him and Watson only saw one of them! He thought that there may be something neurological going on with him. He said that he would do some blood tests and x-rays and watch him. He thought that maybe Watson had a stroke and maybe that’s what was causing the problem and would do a thyroid test to see if that’s what caused the blood clot in the first place. When he took Watson out of the exam room and Xander and I were leaving, Xander began crying that we were leaving kitty. I tried to tell him that kitty had to stay so that the doctor could try to figure out why kitty was so sick and to make him better, but that didn’t help. He cried and cried for kitty. He finally stopped when we were about 2 blocks from home and then fell asleep. I drove for about a half hour so that he could get some sleep. When we got home, Xander didn’t want to be awake so after fighting it for a little bit, I decided ok… let’s take a nap. So we both slept until lunch time.
About 2pm the Vet called and said that he really thought that there was something neurological wrong with Watson after watching him throughout the day. He said that when he was taking X-rays of Watson that he got so stressed that he almost passed out! He wanted to me to take Watson to a specialist vet center. Xander and I packed up quickly and went to get Watson. We met with the Vet and he said that he was having a thyroid test done but the results wouldn’t be back for a few days. In the meantime, he wanted to take Watson’s blood pressure because that could be elevated from low thyroid function and cause him to throw clots. He said that his intestines and heart looked good and all of his blood work (from both places) all looked normal. Taking animals blood pressure was something that the specialty vet could do.
So we immediately left for the specialty hospital. I brought x-rays that Watson had taken about a year and a half ago and then the newest x-rays. I couldn’t carry everything in in one trip. So Xander and I went back out for the diaper bag and the x-rays and Xander was starting to get upset that we left kitty. I said that we just had to get things out of the car and we’ll go right back and see kitty. The specialty hospital quickly put us in an exam room (their largest one so that Xander could have room to roam). He kept bumping his nose on the carrier door, like it surprised him that it was there. He really couldn’t see. I took Watson out of the carrier and Xander petted kitty and I held Watson as much as I could to comfort him which did seem to help. The Specialty Vet came in and talked with us about Watson. He had such a sweet and caring demeanor. After having Watson walk around on the floor he agreed that he couldn’t see and that was why he was just meowing because it was so confusing and scary. He wanted to take his blood pressure and look at his retinas. So he took Watson and Xander was a little upset by this but not bad. The specialty Vet was holding Watson and scratching him and telling him that he knew how scary it was. He really seemed to have a truly caring nature. When Watson came back he had a bandana around his neck… I don’t know why. He said that his eyes/retinas looked normal and that his blood pressure was normal. So there were a couple possibilities. That there was some vascular incident and that he would gradually improve over the next 24h. Or that he could have some kind of tumor in the brain. I decided to keep Watson there overnight to get more fluids (that we’d been carrying with us from vet to vet) while we decided if we should do a CT scan and a spinal tap to find out what was going on with Watson. Xander was getting very hungry, so we headed home to get some dinner. After we got home and Xander was eating the Specialty Vet called and said that Watson had had a seizure. They gave him valium to prevent another seizure and would give him Phenobarbital if he had another. They were going to wait until we had decided whether or not to do the CT scan and the spinal tap before they started him on Prednisone to decrease the swelling which should help in any scenario that we were looking at. The Specialty Vet believed that Watson’s eyesight would eventually return and that he would need to stay in the hospital until he had 24h without a seizure. There would be routine blood work to assay the blood levels of Phenobarbital. I thought about going to visit Watson after Xander went to bed, but I thought I’ll just see him in the morning.
Nelson and I decided that we would not have the CT scan or the spinal tap done on Watson. Our reasoning was that in the last few years Watson’s overall quality of life was starting to decline. We couldn’t see putting Watson through the stress of another transport to a different hospital and the procedures in the condition he was in. In the worst case, if he had a tumor that was operable we also couldn’t see putting him through surgery and chemotherapy since he had was having difficulty eating and not throwing up. All that to say, Watson was still his normal self and seemed to be quite content with life. I didn’t want to admit that Watson was beginning a decline of his health. I also was feeling very guilty that I had not been treating him as well as I should have. Since Xander has come along I’ve found it very difficult to give everyone the attention that they need and deserve. Unfortunately, the cats often got the leftovers… which weren’t all that abundant. Often Watosn would be so frustrating to me because of his apparent finicky eating habits and his chewing my rose cuttings that I was trying to grow. I’m so ashamed to admit that there were times I wished that he wasn’t around… he could be just so infuriating! All the time that I was praying that God would help us to figure out what was wrong with him, to help him get better, and for his eyesight to return, I just felt like we were going to be a one cat family. I don’t know why I thought that he wasn’t going to make it… was I wishing for that?
Nelson called the Specialty Vet Hospital before we went to bed to check on Watson. The said that his temperature was dropping and they put him in a heating blanket and that this was common for after a sedative. They said he seemed a little out of it, but also common after a seizure and sedation. I kept praying through the night.
The cats have never been without each other for more than a few hours during the day when Watson had 2 surgeries without Zemo going to the Vet, too. Zemo had been walking around meowing and looking for Watson, so Nelson and I decided to let him sleep with us for the night. We had kept the cats from sleeping with us since Xander was sleeping in the bed with us. When Xander started sleeping in his crib in his room we just kept on sleeping without the cats for Nelson’s allergies.
I was up for a couple hours with Xander during the night and after I got him back to sleep in his crib I was laying in bed and thought I heard the phone ring, but didn’t hear it again. Nelson got up to go to work early and then came back into the bedroom and said that the Specialty Vet hospital had called. Watson had gone into cardiac arrest and died. I immediately began sobbing. I began blurting all of the feelings I had been having about him not making it, going to visit, about at times him not being around. I had no idea that Watson was going to die. Not that I sat around thinking of how people will die, but the people in my life that have died… I never expected it to happen to them or the way that it happened. I just thought that it would come down to a quality of life decision with Watson… either sooner because of his vision impairment, a tumor, or his difficulty eating. I never anticipated it occurring so suddenly. Nelson eventually decided to stay home and do some work from home to be with me. He also wanted to stay home to help clean the house since my dad was coming to visit later that day.
After Xander got up and I made pancakes (Xander’s favorite), we got ready and went to the Specialty Vet to pick up the Cat carrier and to settle our bill. When we got to the door of the Specialty Vet Hospital Xander said Kitty. We had to explain to him that kitty wasn’t here. We got the carrier and got a copy of the referral letter that the Vet on duty had written explaining what had happened. The whole time Xander kept asking for kitty and playing with the cat carrier. When we left he asked for kitty again and I had to say that kitty won’t be coming home with us as I was unsuccessfully fighting back the tears. When we got in the car he again asked for kitty and I explained that kitty was very sick and didn’t get better and he died. Xander put his hands up covering his eyes and began to cry.
After lunch we went to the bedroom for our nap and Xander said happily kitty when we went to the bed and I had to tell him that kitty wasn’t in here.
Sunday evening we were all watching a movie and all of sudden Xander went over to Nelson and pointed to Zemo, who was sitting on his lap, and said kitty and then began crying and laid down on the floor.
It’s apparent how much of a presence Watson had with Xander. Many pictures of Xander have Watson somewhere in them. I’m really sad that Xander will forget Watson and I’m going to have to tell Xander about Watson when he’s older. I hope that Zemo will someday really warm up to Xander and be close to him.One week and one day later we went to pick up Watson’s remains. As soon as we drove into the parking lot of the Specialty Vet’s office Xander started saying and signing kitty! We had to explain again that kitty was really sick and the doctor couldn’t make him better. That kid’s got an amazing memory!
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