UPDATE: Friday, Sep 22, 2023 · 8:05:15 PM +00:00 · jtg
Anubis had a biopsy and came through the biopsy well.
The results will take about a week.
Anubis slept until late evening. I kept him in the box as being drugged he might hurt himself if I just let him out.
When he recovered, he was an eating machine. He chowed down and became an obnoxious purrball as he got on top of me.
The vet has said that in 20 years of being a vet, she's never seen anything like the mass inside Anubis. It is about 3 to 4 inches across with multiple denser balls inside. Shge tried to get samples of both the larger mass as well as from the smaller denser masses.
The past few days have been very stressful for me. I think about him all day and rush home as soon as I can. I want to spend as much time as I can with him and make his potential last days as nice as possible.
#jtg
My 13-year-old kitty, Anubis Maukat, may have cancer.
The vet said that he had a mass of about 3 inches in his abdomen. It was not there a few months ago, so the vet thinks this means it could be an aggressive cancer. As a result, as she put it, the long-term outlook is not good.
The next step is a needle biopsy to see if they can tell if it is or is not cancer. Even if it is not cancer, it is a large mass and growing quickly and could cause problems by pressing on internal organs or even keeping him from being able to eat.
If it is not cancer, or a cancer that is not aggressive, then surgery may be needed, if the mass is excusable, i.e. able to be removed without damaging inter organs.
On the positive side, his blood tests show him to be almost normal in all the important ways, which implies that either the mass may not be cancer, or it just has not yet caused effects that show up in the blood. His vet thinks this is a potentially good thing, but due to the size and speed of growth of the mass, she is still very concerned.
I have been emotionally shattered over this. Anubis and I have been through a lot. He is also one of the last connections I have to my late father. The idea of being on deathwatch, as I was with my late father, is very depressing.
On the other hand, I feel like my late father would say, as he did with an earlier cat, Zuki, “it’s just a god-dammed cat”.
I still have my other three cats and four dogs, and I don’t want to lose sight of them in all this. They are important and someday I’ll go through this with all of them, assuming they outlive me.
I often have seen tributes to passed pets, and I will be posting such a tribute when Anubis finally goes over the rainbow bridge.
I’ve been intending for a long time to write the story of each of my current, and past, critters, and now I have an incentive to do so.
What follows is a first draft of the story of Anubis. When he finally passes, I’ll post a much-expanded version of this.
* * *
Anubis came to me and Dad after we came home from a visit to his then-newly-discovered second cousin, who lived in Chico, California. Dad and I had taken the 260-mile trip. We spent several days away and took our then-very elderly dog Norman with us. However, we forgot to close the back door and it was open for the whole time we were away.
At that time, there was a female cat who had been coming into the house to eat Norman’s dog food. She had several litters of kittens over several years, but I was never able to catch her or any of the kittens.
When we got home, I saw Norman acting odd and I walked over to his food bowl and discovered a tiny white kitten lying in the bowl.
The kitten was very tiny, and obviously not old enough to even be weaned. As dog food is not good for any cat to eat, much less an unweaned kitten, his bottom was coated with a thick layer of diarrhea. He was near death as he was not very responsive and his tiny ribs were clearly visible. He seemed to be within hours of death. Had Dad and I spent another day away, or perhaps even a few more hours, I might have found a dead kitten in Norman’s food bowl.
I showed the near-dead kitten to Dad, who said, “We aren’t keeping it”, I naturally ignored him. I washed the thick coat of diarrhea off his bottom, got a can of tuna out of the cupboard, and fed the starving little baby.
To try to get Dad’s support, I asked him what we should name the wee kitty. Dad replied “Herman”. I didn’t like the name, but I accepted it to try to appeal to Dad. Then a couple of days later, I asked Dad “What did we name the kitten?”, suspecting and then confirming that Dad did not remember. I decided to name him after an Egyptian God because ancient Egyptians had a cultural thing for cats. I decided to name him “Anubis” because he was already becoming playful and knocking things off tables and counters. I am a fan of the then-current television show Stargate-SG1 and the main bad at the time was a character named “Anubis”. Since the Egyptian word for cat is “mau”, I took Mau- as a prefix and added -kat, and thus Anubis Maukat was named.
Now I’ll skip forward as much happened in the meantime. I’ll fill out this part of the Anubis story later.
Dad died on May 4, 2015. Anubis was then about 5 years old and Norman was about 18.
In the last few months of Dad’s life, it was a real question whether Dad or Norman went first. I’m glad it was Dad in that if Norman had died first, I don't think Dad would have handled the situation well given his own imminent demise.
As those of you who have been following me for some time, you may recall my posts about the difficulties I went through in those days.
Not only was I grieving the loss of my father, but some family members were not only less than supportive, they were actually predatory. I had become quite isolated socially in the years I had been Dad’s caregiver as he refused to ever allow visitors and in the last few years never wanted to go anywhere where there were people.
In the years I had been Dad’s caregiver, I had been taking college classes whenever he was well enough to leave alone for a few hours at a time. In that time I earned nine associate degrees in addition to my bachelor's in computer science.
In those days, I came close to not being able to pay my bills more than once. I did not use the heat and kept most of the lights off. I turned off the satellite TV that kept Dad entertained. There were many cold winter nights when I sat in the cold gloom cuddling with Anubis as I cried in dispair of my situation.
Then came Delight dog. Her and Anubis got along well.
However, Anubis did not get along so well with her four puppies. He left the house and refused to come in. I saw he was getting skinny, when I saw him, so I put food out on the front porch for him.
There was a point when I did not see him for about 8 months, and didn’t know if he was even alive. I put out a trail camera and discovered proof of his continuing existence.
There were some signs during those years in self-imposed exile that he was around.
He sometimes would come to the front room window, and look inside sadly, but he would run off by the time I would open the door.
He lived under the house for much of this time. He got in via an access port that was left open. Several times he would go under the house and from under my chair in the living room I could hear him meow loudly and pitifully.
I eventually manged to catch him and bring him back inside. I’ll tell that story later as I think I need to post this now.
* * *
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I am not sure how much longer I will have him. Now that i know what is inside him, I can see the changes in his behavior. Today as I write this, Friday, 8/15/2023, he spent most of the day sleeping, much more than usual. He at a little bit in the morning and a little bit in the evening. He wsn’t as cuddlie or affectionate as he usually is. It is clear that something has changed.
The vet said that with cats, they can go from totally healthy to gone quickly. He has a needle biopsy scheduled for this week. I’ve put $1300 into diagnosis already, and the biopsy will be another $500.
I keep thinking about what my father would say, “it’s just a god dammed cat”.
I keep having flashbacks to my father’s last days, and the nights when I came close to homelessness in the cold nights holding onto my purrball
I know I can’t have him forever, but I wish I could have him a bit longer than it seems I will. have him.
I’ll probably next post. diary about him after he passes, baring some sort of unlikely positive outcome.
#jtg