If things had been different, my older sister, Bonnie Stevens, would have been celebrating her 77th birthday today. Instead, she passed away in October 2016 of breast cancer.
In one of those weird coincidences, I just ran into a little video taken when we celebrated her birthday in April 2009 with dinner at our parents’ house in Kahala. It was just Bonnie, our mother (who turned 95 the following month), Meda and me. Our father wasn’t there for the party. He had been in a nursing home since the previous November, after a fall sent him to Queen’s Hospital. We celebrated on April 9, the day before Bonnie’s actual birthday, because Meda and I were both working in town that day.
I say finding the video was a weird coincidence because I just happened to notice it while briefly scanning a small hard drive containing photo files from 2009 to determine how to back up the data. Its tiny thumbnail looked like a fire or volcano, so I clicked and opened it. The “volcano” turned out to be the candles burning on Bonnie’s birthday cake in the first seconds of the video. I have no recollection of the video, so finding it on April 9, the day before Bonnie’s birthday, and the same date that we had that dinner in 2009, rings of synchronicity.
It’s interesting to see my parents house, which is now our house. That light over the dining table was broken, and needed a tap or two in order to turn on. The house itself has been extensively renovated, but the spaces are still much the same.
So, Bonnie, we’ll remember you and have a drink in honor of your birthday this evening. Thanks for reminding me.
Taken on the beach this morning in Kahala just after Ms. Pepper spotted us from a distance and came flying over to greet us.
You’ll notice Pepper runs right past Meda. That’s because Meda declines to offer Pepper treats for fear of getting her fingers nipped. But I’ve reached an accommodation with Pepper, who now behaves when I finally offer her a bit of a small dog-size Milk Bone.
I had forgotten about this little video that dates back to 2010 at our house in Kaaawa. We had arrived home from a shopping expedition, opened the front door, and looked across the room to the back deck, where a show was going on. It was one of those spur-of-the-moment, grab the closest camera kind of occasions.
[Sorry for screwing up on my first try to post this video! I think it should display correctly now.]
No, I wasn’t referring to the mess we’ve stirred up in the Middle East. Or any of the other national and global crises.
It hasn’t been a good 24-hours here in our feline-centric household.
I’ve felt for some time that with three cats over the age of 16, each with their own health issues, at any moment we could be facing a sudden feline health crisis.
But I didn’t expect Annie to be the first to face a life-threatening condition.
It surfaced yesterday, Tuesday, January 7.
This health problem made a stealthy approach, and I didn’t see it coming, partly because Annie’s been the most aloof of our cats. When we lived in Kaaawa, she was a hunter and roamed the large empty parcel next door for years in search of rats. She would be gone for hours, sometimes long enough for me to get worried and go searching for her. We’ve gotten used to her handling things on her own.
Since moving to town and becoming an indoor cat, she’s always stayed a bit more to herself. She hasn’t become a lap cat as she’s aged, unlike Romeo, who is seriously into sleeping in laps. But Annie does like to sneak onto our bed when we’re asleep. She also prefers to eat somewhere away from the boys.
Annie has a mild heart murmur, diagnosed several years ago, which hasn’t developed into a real issue. But on her last vet visit a few months ago, tests showed she had elevated kidney values indicating a potential problem. It went onto a short “let’s keep an eye on this” list, but nothing had subsequently signaled an impending crisis.
Fast forward. Annie has always been a picky eater. But for several days, I’ve had to coax her to eat. She just didn’t feel so good. Yesterday (Tuesday) morning I finally I called our vet and made an appointment to get her checked, just in case. It’s a step I should have taken much sooner.
Long story short. After I made that appointment with our vet, Annie disappeared. Not really unusual. She often finds a quiet spot out of the way or under a chair to sleep away much of the morning. But yesterday, I got worried when she hadn’t come out by early afternoon. She wasn’t in any of her usual spots. I found her curled up in a corner of our bedroom closet, back in an almost hidden area around the corner from a set of shelves. It was a new spot for her, and that made me worried.
I pulled her out. She peed as I held her. Not good. I called our vet. They advised us to take her directly to the Veterinary Emergency and Referral Clinic near Ala Moana Center. It’s the same place where Toby got emergency hospital care a bit more than two years ago. Not a lot of happy memories there. We were on our way in minutes and she was admitted on an emergency basis.
By early evening, we received an update. Here’s what we know so far. A blood test indicated presence of a urinary infection, which may have spread up to her kidneys. She was started immediately on antibiotics. But there’s a more serious issue. It appears there is a blockage from one kidney to her bladder. A kidney stone, perhaps, which is painful. They are administering fluids and giving her a drug or drugs that will hopefully allow that stone to pass. There is a chance that kidney is damaged and will not return to functioning. Her other kidney appears to be functioning properly.
The vet we were dealing with yesterday said surgery to remove the stone is an option. Meda and I agree, however, that this 16-year old cat is not a candidate for serious surgery, especially for a condition that could recur.
We are hoping she responds to the antibiotics and that the kidney stone is successfully expelled. If she gets through this crisis, her condition is believed to be treatable. If not, not.
Here’s a lesson I should have learned long ago. If your cat changes its behavior, acts differently than normal, take notice. Even if the behavior doesn’t appear to have anything to do with a health problem, assume that any and all unexplained change in behavior is health related. For example, for most of the last week Annie has been coming up onto the kitchen counter when we’re working there. She hadn’t done that for a long time, but suddenly there she was. I thought she was looking for food, and she did seem interested when I put food down in front of her. But it was a change. I should have registered the change, realized she hadn’t had a checkup in a while, and gotten her to the vet ASAP.
We are, of course, hoping for the best outcome. But, as I said at the beginning of this post, I know with certainty that each of our elderly cats has enough health issues to bring them down at any time. It’s just another reminder that time moves forward, whether we’re ready or not.
Here’s a short little video of Ms. Annie back a decade ago when she was just six years old.
