This is a photo of Ms. Annie taken last year when she was still apparently in good health. That was then. This is now.

24 hours ago, I was afraid that we would be saying a final goodbye to her very, very soon, possibly today. She had only eaten tiny amounts for a couple of days, was constantly looking for water, appeared lethargic, and was visibly shedding body mass very quickly, all consistent with signs of end stage kidney failure in cats.

Believing we would soon be called on to do the right thing by her, I contacted our regular vet to find out the etiquette of euthanasia in the age of COVID-19. She was about as upset by the situation as we were, and offered to accommodate whatever we felt was necessary. We said that we would text her Tuesday morning if we decided it was time.

And then things changed. Possibly. On Sunday I had discontinued the medication Annie had been getting to control high blood pressure, another symptom of her kidney failure. We had decided that if we’re now doing kitty hospice care, we might as well eliminate the stress of trying to get the medicine into Annie, which had become a daily struggle.

Late Monday afternoon, I cooked up a little fresh fish and fed the cats. Each got a small amount. Annie’s small amount was more than she had eaten in days. And I was surprised when she dug right in and ate it all. Well, “all” was only about a tablespoon, but she she didn’t just pick at it. Rather, she dived right in.

That seemed very positive. And she ate some dry kibbles overnight, she repeated yesterday’s performance with a bit more fish this morning, thereby earning a reprieve.

So now we have to consider the possibility that the blood pressure medication was making her feel nauseous, depressing her appetite beyond the effects of kidney disease alone. It’s still just a possibility, but now we have Annie under observation and will get a better sense of what we’re dealing with over the next day or two. So we’ll see.

Annie is a very sick kitty, and painfully thin now, but….she may have a bit more time left than we had expected. I don’t think it will be a lot of time, but at this point every little bit is appreciated.

Those who have followed Annie’s saga will remember that she collapsed in early January and, after almost a week in the emergency vet hospital, was sent home with an extremely guarded prognosis. I fully expected she was going to die within just a few days. She was sent home on January 10. So she’s defied all the odds by surviving for another five months aided by daily infusions of subcutaneous fluids, enabling us to have time for a long goodbye. And today, that’s been extended for at least another day. As they say, we’re literally taking it a day at a time.