Sarcastic Bastard

today has become a sad day for me. all day i've been nervously awaiting word from the vet about my cat charlie's test results. i was optimistic that the results would come back negative, and she wouldn't have diabetes. well, the results were negative for diabetes, but unfortunately showed something worse: kidney failure. to prolong her life by getting her the necessary treatment, as well as the dental work she needs, would be much too costly for my family. we decided that, at 8 1/2 years, charlie has lived a good life, and we are going to have her put to sleep, so as to avoid her pain and suffering. at the moment, she's still relatively healthy, though i fear her health will rapidly deteriorate. the symptoms just appeared last week, but who knows how long her body has been fighting, and how long it can continue to succeed.

for those of you who don't know, here's the history of charlie, in a nutshell:
we got her in september of 1994, as a 5 month old kitten from the humane society. the first month or so was very difficult, because she got sick, and we didn't think she'd make it. after a sudden improvement in her health, she began to grow (and grow - she's been a bit on the fat side most of her life) and develop her own personality. those of you who've met her know she's not a very friendly cat. we suspect that the reason for her suspicious nature is that she had a difficult first few months of life, having been abandoned, and possibly abused. nonetheless, we've all grown to love her (even my mom, who denies it, but i'm sure she'll kinda miss her too!). it's always been comforting having her in the house - to talk to, play with, or just to watch her be cute whatever she was doing.

i've never actually lost a real pet...we had hamsters, but their loss wasn't such a huge deal, probably because we didn't have them for close to a decade. it really makes me stop and think about things.

posted by leor @ 15:45