Sibling (un-)rivalry

None of us can believe just how well Rosie and D’arcy have gotten on after Maggie passed away. Rosie, in particular, loves cuddling up to her brother. I think D’arcy just tolerates it, but it doesn’t seem to bother him in the least. It’s the middle of winter here now and Auckland was 1.3 degrees Celsius (34.3 degrees Fahrenheit) yesterday morning at around 7:30AM, so the fact they will cuddle up is a really good thing. We usually keep the house really warm for them, even during the day, and they have their blankies and windows where they can sit in the sun, but a little more warmth can’t hurt.

All the cuddles, all the time

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D’arcy is coping OK now. He still gravitates to places and things Maggie liked. I’m not sure whether that’s to do with him being close to her, or because she was top of the pecking order and now that she’s not here, he’s allowed to use them. His favourite places at the moment are Maggie’s snotty teepee, and the place at the head of my bed where Maggie wet herself when I accidentally shut her in my room for a few hours. I have cleaned it, and it no longer smells to me (unless I put my nose right up to it and have a good sniff, but I’m not gonna do that), but it must smell to him. I finally got around to cleaning the snot marks off my wall by my bed… but the actual wall itself was dirty so I ended up having to clean and disinfect the WHOLE wall so you couldn’t see where I’d cleaned.

“In my sister’s snotty teepee”

Rosie has come out of her shell a lot more too. Maggie and Rose never got along. It’s sad to say it, but it’s like she’s more comfy because she’s moved up a tier in the hierarchy. She’s become pretty demanding of me; if I don’t pay attention to her quick enough, she will promptly sit on my chest and settle down with her bum to me.

“What?”

“Stay still”

“Don’t move, bed”

“Have my bum”

My view

Another very sad day

We placed Maggie in front of the TV (a spot she liked) and lifted the top of the cage off so that the other two could go and see her if they wanted to. Dad didn’t want to do that; he said the others wouldn’t care or know what was going on, but Mum and I pushed for it. By the end of the night, Dad had to eat his words.

A nice spot in the warm.

Rosie has been to see Maggie a couple of times – once when I brought her out (but Dad was too loud and imposing on her so it was only a quick sniff), and once a bit later properly when Dad was in bed and I was in my bedroom. She seems OK, but she has been giving me lots of loves, and she often just sits and peers down the hall to where Maggie was.

Worried.

D’arcy has reacted completely differently. It’s D’arcy we are a little concerned about. He has had a look and a good sniff of Maggie around five times. He’s been prowling around the house and has been quite unsettled. He goes into the hall and cries for her. He’s been bullying Rose and getting aggressive. Last night, he sat on my bed staring blankly at the blanket without moving for around 10 minutes. He slept with me last night, and this morning I picked him up and put him under the covers with me for a cuddle. Usually, he’d either leave right away or only stay for a minute or two, but he cuddled with me for a good hour or so before I had to get up and get moving. I looked up about feline depression and anxiety symptoms, and we’re going to give him lots of attention (as long as he’s not being naughty) like cuddles, brushes, and play time, and we’re going to let him out when he wants to go out.

Stared like this for ages.

Much more comfy with Maggie’s lizard.

One last little sniff.

We took Maggie to Pet Cremations this morning. Mum is a bit upset about it, which is understandable. The lady there was very nice and understanding. We chose a nice little casket for her with a gold plaque to go on the top. It’s similar to the ones we had for our old cats, and we went to the same place when we got the others done. We’ll be able to pick her up on Friday. No more cancer and no more cold.

The car trip.

Nice and comfy.

This is how we want her little casket to be.

Toilet obsession

As may have been alluded to in previous posts, Maggie has developed somewhat of a toilet obsession. She follows or barges her way in whenever we go, and she goes in there to howl at night to wake us all up.

She came in with me tonight and purred her heart out. I picked her up so she could watch the toilet flush, which she really enjoyed. I brought her in to my room to cuddle on my bed. She stayed there for a while, then hopped off and went out the door. I thought she might have gone down to see Mum and Dad in the lounge, but Mum Facebook messaged me asking if Maggie was up with me. I said no, that she might have been in the dining room window. I went down to have a look around and she was nowhere to be found. I could hear a faint snuffling, so I knew she was somewhere.

I opened the toilet door, and what do you know…

In her favourite place.

She came out for a bit to give Dad (who was lying on the floor trying to coax her out) some loves. I put a blankie in there so she wouldn’t be cold on the floor in there.

Loves for Dad.

Her new favourite place.

She is now singing in the shower (her other favourite spot).

A new eruption

Maggie still gets frantic when I fall asleep. I’ve noticed that, in addition to meowing in my face, pacing the bed, and climbing all over me, she also lightly but quickly taps my shoulder. It’d actually be really cute, if she wasn’t doing it because she was upset.

She’s had another small eruption on her face, just above the corner of her lip on the right side of her face. It bled a little bit this morning. I think this is just something we’re going to have to accept and manage. It doesn’t appear to cause her pain or distress.

The new eruption just above the corner of her lip.

Last night, she swallowed another piece of tube. We’re no longer using the tubing on the syringe. We’re just sucking it up and trying to get the food in with the nozzle as it is.

She was OK this morning being fed, but she still gets quite feisty. We periodically give her a break, and she settles down by the window and looks forlorn. Whenever I feed her and Mum helps rather than Dad, I get her to hold Maggie afterwards so I can give her face a real thorough clean. I think I did a pretty good job this morning, and she almost went to sleep with me gently wiping the left side of her face with a warm face cloth.

“Oh, woe is me…”

I’m always really proud when I’ve cleaned her face well, especially when she’s been calm about it (which is most of the time). Dad doesn’t really do it thoroughly enough for my liking; I’m not quite a germophobe, but I feel soooo much comfier when her face is super clean, including her eye and nose. It’s very satisfying for me, but it must also be more comfortable for her.

A clean little bubbie cuddling with Mummy

We’re going to try and get her in to both the normal vet, and VSG early next week. I have a list of things we need to bring up:

• The new eruption on her face. We were told that treating it with the antiseptic ointment would do no good since it wouldn’t permeate past the surface, but I want to know if it would help to stop bugs getting in in the first place (rather than kill the tumour). Dad also wants to confirm that these lesions aren’t causing her much, if any, pain.
• This new behaviour of panicking when I fall asleep at night. I don’t know what has caused it. If we have some possible reasons to it, we might be able to manage or fix it to limit her distress. Nothing bad has ever happened while I’ve been asleep at night.
• An X-Ray or ultrasound to check where the two pieces of tube are. I don’t know, but this also may help to check how full her bowel is.
• Her protruding anus. I want to make sure this is OK and not indicative of constipation or obstipation (which would be a medical emergency). She may need a stool softener, which I want to ask about.
• I also want to see if there’s a topical pain relief we can be given to put on her lesions and nose. The nose in particular must get sore, as we’re forever fiddling with it and cleaning it. You know what it’s like when you have a persistently runny nose and have to blow your nose several times a day and the tissues start to feel like sandpaper.
• We need to have her weighed and general condition assessed.

I can’t think of anything else right now that I’d like to find out, but if I do, I’ll write it down.

Not too bad

I went home with Mum this afternoon to feed Maggie her lunch.

When we got home, she was behind the TV in the window, which has become reasonably normal for her. She wasn’t distressed, and it looked like she’d just had a drink because the fur around her mouth was wet (too much and the liquid was too thin to be drool).

We fed her and she didn’t take it well. She ate probably 1.5 syringes of food before becoming too stressed. I washed her face, eye and nose this time, and I washed them well. I brushed her face and forehead with the shedding brush, which she loves, and then set her down on Dad’s seat. She looked so content. Perhaps she only frets at night.

Left side smoooooth

Right side smooooooth

Front silky smooooooth

I had a look at Maggie’s bum (hard not to when she practically thrusts it in my face), and her anus is a bit protrusile, so I’m wondering whether her bowel is totally full and she hasn’t got the energy to defecate. She might need a stool softener. It’s not inflamed, red or prolapsed, just a bit sticky-outy. She doesn’t poo very often now, but she eats every day (albeit not on her own). That’s another thing I will bring up with the vet next week.

Poor D’arcy is a bit under the weather. He’s been vomiting a bit and had accidentally left some poos on the carpet. I caught him trying to either poo on the carpet, or drop a poo on the carpet that was stuck to his bum. Hopefully he recovers from that soon or we’ll have to take him to the vet too.

Got through the weekend

We’ve had a mixed weekend. We still have to check in with the vet, and I think Mum’s going to do that later today.

Maggie still sleeps with me most of the night. I think she gets up periodically to have a big drink, but I always wake up with her on my bed.

Early in the morning…

Sharing well with her brother.

Cuddle times, bed hair included.

She needs to be close to me at all times.

She likes the wall.

She didn’t have a bad sleep last night. She slept for about an hour under the covers with me with her little head out. She got really comfy and stretched her arm out and turned her head upside down for a short time. She was very quiet; no snuffling or snorting.

We had another cuddle this morning before breakfast. In all honesty, she was terrible to try and feed this morning. She really resisted and we had to re-wrap her twice. She just spat and sprayed the food all over the place.

I went home with Dad to feed her her lunch just before. When we got in, Dad looked behind the TV and she wasn’t there, so he said she was probably in my room. He was right. As soon as I got to my bedroom door, Maggie got up and got off the bed. I thought she was going to gap it initially because she’s gotten to knowing what is coming next, but she didn’t. She came to the door and waited. I gave her a pat and her tail stood up and she looked at me lovingly. She tried to clean her nose with her paw (all by herself!) then turned around and jumped back on the bed and started chattering away to me. I got on the bed and lifted the blanket and she went underneath. She had a quiet rest for around 15 minutes until Dad was ready with her food.

Again, she was even more terrible to feed. We had to re-wrap her twice, and she growled the whole time. We did manage to get a bit of food into her though. I’m actually really surprised at how much energy and strength she has, considering she’s a very sick cat that weighs just over a third of what she should weigh (last weigh in weighed her at 2.92kg; a 30g loss). None of us believed it when the nurse at VSG said this to us, but I can safely say that she has earned the title of ‘ferocious’.

After feeding, I put her back on my bed under the covers, and she settled down. She was comfy, though miffed.

Her face has closed up nicely. It’s not weeping or bleeding, and doesn’t seem to be causing her as much pain as it was a couple of days ago. I do still think it’d be beneficial for her to have some kind of topical pain relief for that area and her nose, but I’m not a vet so it may be that the risks aren’t worth it, or there may not be any topical pain relief that’s suitable for wounds. I don’t know.

Not looking as terrible as it did.

I have found a few little lumps around her neck and face that are just over the size of a pea each. They don’t seem to be causing her any discomfort, but we know it’s not a good sign.

Oh. And Maggie did big poos in the dirtbox. She hasn’t done that in a while, so we were pretty excited.

Weird day

My parents took Maggie to the vet last night about her face. I wasn’t there, and the information my parents have fed me is vague and incomplete, but it sounds like the vet thinks the wound on her face is actually the cancer breaking through and spreading to her skin. It seems to have calmed down but she’s lost a bit of fur there and if she scratches it again it’ll open. Dad seemed to think the vet thought something would happen over the weekend because he made sure to remind us that VSG is open over the weekend. He also wants us to call him on Monday to let him know how Maggie is.

We’ve had a weird day today. Maggie has decided that she occasionally wants to sleep next to me with her bum on my shoulder… Well, OK then.

Why you do dis???

She’s also been outside today. It’s probably been around 9 degrees Celsius today. She went out on the back deck, and I was like, “oooooh no you don’t…” and went inside and got my onesie. She cuddled up inside it on the deck for a short time, but then she got out, walked over to where I was sitting, looked at me, then walked back to the onesie. She was telling me to bring the onesie closer to me. I did what she asked and she happily curled up inside it with her face out. She stayed there like that for about half an hour. I noticed she started shivering (surprise, surprise) so I brought her inside into my room where the heater had been on. She didn’t enjoy that one bit.

Outside!

Exploring

Taking in the sights

Cuddled in the onesie

“This is inadequate…”

“Bring the onesie over here plz”

Cuddly in the onesie again

“My ear escaped!”

She’s also been sleeping in weird places like next to her water bowl, in the hall, and behind the TV. She hasn’t really been hiding, but she’s been almost seeking out places that are cool and have a wall for her to press he face against. She’s not been that interested in staying on my bed… Probably because I get my room nice and warm for her. The vet has said her temperature is fine, but I’m sure something isn’t right with it. She’s currently being restless. It’s 11:15PM now, I’ve not long gone to bed, and she’s already been up and down twice. I’m not sure what that’s about. She’s had one day where she was agitated like this but by the evening she was OK.

I’ll update if there are any changes.

Young Maggie

I found an old photo of Maggie and me. I think she’d be around 2 or 3 there; she’s 14 now.

Slowly downhill

I went home with Dad at lunch time to feed Maggie today, and she wasn’t very good with it. Mum used to help Dad to feed Maggie, but one day Mum had a family meeting and we discovered that Maggie tolerates me a little more, so now that’s my job. We gave her three tubes of food, but I think she probably only swallowed about two tubes. She spat the rest of it out.

Grouchy! Feeding time before I got involved.

In general, she seems cold and uncomfortable, except when she’s cuddled up with me on my bed. I make sure that she’s with me all the time that I’m home. Because of that, she’s happy and comfy a majority of the time. I’m not complaining; I get to stay in bed in the warm.

Excuse all the snotty, dribbly patches on the sheets and walls… I’ve decided not to worry about it. Maggie can’t help it, and most of those marks are made when she’s at her comfiest.

Fell asleep on her arm…

Falling asleep in the warm.

Cuddly under the covers.

REALLY comfy…

REALLY comfy…

I’ve discovered a patch on her right cheek (the bad side) where the fur has been matted together with blood or some other secretion. I’m not sure what the stuff is, or what’s happening on the skin beneath the fur, and it’s a bit hard for me to see. I showed it to Dad last night and he brushed it off, but I showed it to him again at feeding time today and now he wants to have the vet take a look at it. I’m not sure when that will be.

The problem area.

Sorry for the terrible photo. There’s a bit of gunk in her fur.

Both Maggie and D’arcy have been more sociable. D’arcy, in particular, has been very sooky. He waits on the arm of the couch every day for Mum to come home. He licks her and purrs and cuddles right up to her. This is not entirely usual for him. She takes a photo of him almost every night. This gallery shows the sheer number of nights Mum has sent me a photo of D’arcy cuddled up to her on the couch.

“I’m with my Mummy….”

Rosie has also been a bit more cuddly. She’s cuddled up next to Mum on the couch, and enjoys cuddling up near D’arcy on Mum’s bed. She usually keeps to herself and is quite a loner, but since Maggie has taken a turn for the worse, she’s needed more affection and support.

Sharing Mum’s bed like good boys and girls.

Cuddled up next to Mum on the couch.

Hunger strike again

Maggie’s stopped eating on her own entirely again. She still drinks plenty of water on her own, but we’re syringe feeding her. She’s dropped down to 2.95kg despite this, so we’ve increased the frequency from twice daily to four times a day. She gets a little sulky after her feeds, but it doesn’t last very long.

Sulking

The other night, she swallowed the tube off the end of the syringe. We’re a bit concerned about it, but we’ve taken her to the vet and the vet said that if she tries to pass it and if it’s going to be a problem, Maggie will let us know. So far, we haven’t had any issues but we’ve been super careful feeding her now.

She also gets quite cold, so we’ve been having all the heaters in the house on for her – one in the lounge, and one in my bedroom. I’ve started wearing my onesie when I take her for feeding too.

All cuddly in the warm.

She was having sneezing fits for a while, but that seems to have stopped so I think the tumour has further progressed.

I tried bringing her teepee up into my room and sticking my heater behind it. I encouraged her to go in there and she did go in and sit down, but she looked at me like I’d insulted her ancestors then promptly got out and jumped back on my bed and demanded to go under the covers.

Me attempting to be lovely to her.

Heh chump.

She likes having me there with her, even if she’s not under the covers with me, especially with my body heat. I think it gives her a bit of security. Last night she must have been dreaming, or was asleep and forgot where she was and woke up with a wall in her face and got an almighty fright. Luckily I was there to give her pats and calm her down, and she purred.

Her scar got a bit raw a few days ago, so we had to get her some antiseptic ointment. The ointment was red and almost bloody and wasn’t a great look for her. It seems to have calmed the scar down now though, although she’s lost a wee bit of fluff just on the right side of the scar between the scar and the bridge of her nose.

Owwie…

One positive though, is that on Saturday she did go outside in the sun. She hasn’t done this in at least a month. Dad let her stay out for a little bit, then brought her inside and opened the doors to the front deck so she could go out.

OUTSIDE!

Poor D’arcy still gets a little down. I’ve made sure I give him plenty of cuddles and loves. He spends most of his time on my bed until I go to bed, and then I think he goes in with Mum.

Poor little boy…

We don’t actually see Rosie all that much, although she’s been sleeping on Mum’s bed or on a chair in Mum’s room a bit more lately. She sleeps with Mum at night. The other night Maggie got quite upset during her feeding time and was yowling, and poor Rosie was so concerned she came out to see that Maggie was alright.