Ming

Lately, things have been really chaotic in my life.  I have been dealing with, as the doctor's all seem to think, a minor nuisance of some female issues, which has been going on for a little over three months.  Another ongoing problem we were having was my cat, Ming, had been sick.  It's been around a month and a half.  I can't honestly say for sure when we noticed Ming getting a lot thinner, but I mostly attributed it to taking the cats off of wet food.  Anyway, one day I noticed she was getting really thin and wasn't acting quite right.  I probably let the symptoms go for too long without really realizing what was going on, but I finally decided to call the vet.  I took her in and they immediately told me she needed to spend at the very least, the weekend getting IV fluids.  She was very jaundice (I swear I never even noticed, but to be fair, she was a tortoise shell cat and tended to look a little brown/ yellow anyway) and they diagnosed her with a fatty liver.  The vet was very concerned.  She took some blood as well to try and determine the underlying cause of Ming's weight loss.  I explained to the vet the Ming has been basically ravenous and eating me out of house and home.  The vet took some blood and thought for sure it was Ming's thyroid.  It came back negative.  So we sent out for an even more detailed blood test...negative.  We even treated for thyroid with no luck.  I'm getting a little ahead of myself, Ming spent 5 days at the vet's office after that first appointment and got IV fluids.  When we took her home, we were taught how to give her fluids at home (basically putting a needle under her skin and giving her 240ml of fluids...which seems like a LOT!)  For the next 5-6 weeks, she was at the vet every weekend.  She just wasn't getting better.  At one point, on Saturday, I called the vet's office after hours and we met with the intention of putting her down.  The vet questioned if that was what I really wanted, of course it wasn't, so we tried some cortisone and vitamins.  After that she felt good for a day or two, then her back legs started failing.  The vet gave her a shot of pain meds and that helped for a few more days.  We started slowing down on the fluids, but after a week, I noticed she was getting really jaundice again.  So we tried more fluids.  After two days, she retained all of the fluids and her belly was completely distended. I finally asked A to take her to vet while I was at work and have her put down.  I cried all morning.  A told the vet if she wanted to see what was the problem, she was welcome to for the learning experience.  She had cancer.  Poor Ming.

Ming was completely my cat.  Anyone who has cats know, sometimes they pick one person as their owner.  Ming definitely picked me.  She slept with me religiously (up until her illness) and she would only come to me when I called her.  Every night she was on my lap.  She really was the sweetest cat I've ever met.  She was always so loving.  I will definitely miss her.  I swear, from the moment I got her (and Trooper, our other cat), I knew that when something like this happened, I would be crushed.  My cats were my lifeline when we lived in Wapakoneta, they were my friends and kids when I had no one.  I'm just happy that I was lucky to have 10 1/2 years with Ming.  Now I am going to spoil our other cat, Trooper!