Trying to get on with life

It's been a little over two weeks since Castor crossed the bridge. Our hearts are a little less heavy. Meommy knows he must have been hurting, especially at the end. She's glad he's not hurting anymore. We have been comforted much by all the kind words left on our bloggy by our furrends out there. Thank you all so much.

Meommy has been spoiling me absolutely rotten. I've gotten more hand outs than ever- meat, eggs, whatever I wants. Meommy plays with me constantly. If there's a mouse to be thrown, I gets to fetch it as long as I want. Meommy decided to take a couple videos of me and post them. The first one, meommy was messing with me a little bit. She had the flashy box and I kept waiting for it to flash, so I followed her around meezing. I am a furry meezy meezer!

In this one, I am doing my fuzzy mouse therapy. I've got one of my favorites (recently rescued from behind the fridge) and meommy is playing with me. I loves my mices and getting to fetch and play.

We'll never forget my brother. I've been with him since I was born. But our hearts are slowly healing and remembering the times when he was a happy, healthy kitten. Meommy is having a hard time getting used to only one kitty to cuddle at night. It used to be meommy would have one of us snuggled under her arm and the other behind her knees. It was first come, first serve for the best place. Now I always sleep tucked under her arm, and there's an empty place behind meommy's knees.

Meommy has often thought about getting another companion kitty for me. But it's probably too soon. For now we are all moving on, healing, and consoling each other.

Words simply cannot express our sadness....

Meommy still has leaky eyes, but she's trying hard to remember the happier times with Castor. She really appreciates your kind words of sympathy. Meommy called the vet this morning to tell him the sad news. He agreed it was probably a brain tumor. If it was, there would have been little to do that would have saved him. Diagnosis is expensive, and although treatment is possible, very expensive and also not always successful. The symptoms he had were consistent with a tumor. Meommy couldn't stand the idea of a necropsy, so we'll never really know.

Castor's sweet little body was laid to rest last night. He was swaddled in a blanket from Florida, since he was born there. He was placed next to out predecessor, Wun Sao under a dog wood tree. The tree is beautiful in the spring and fall. Lots of birds hang out there because there is a bird feeder in the tree. Any cat would love to rest under a tree with lots of birds.

Meommy is determined to spoil me rotten. I ate an entire can of stinky goodness last night. I've never eaten a whole can. I usually shared one with Castor. I had a hard time finishing it. She also bought me a brand new package of fuzzy mice and she's been playing all the fetch with me that I want to. I'm sure we'll all adjust, be a little less sad every day... The loss is very fresh in our hearts right now. Thanks so much for your kind words of sympathy. It means so much that so many of you also cared for my brother.

A Sad, Sad, New Year

Meommy is having a furry hard time typing right now. She got up this morning and went to check on Castor first thing. He's been staying in her office. He had died in the night. Last night, he was walking funny, and what the vet said about neurological causes for his behavior started making a lot of sense. Meommy read lots of stuff on the internet about feline brain tumors. She thinks he must have had one. It must have started progressing as much as a year ago. That's about when he started acting hidey, and slowly started getting aggressive. It had become more pronounced in recent months. A few days ago when he urinated on himself, he must have started losing some physical control. Last night he had a very wobbly gait, another sign of neurological troubles. Meommy read that the tumors can act fast, and be deadly if they are in the part of the brain that controls breathing and the heart.

Meommy finds some comfort in the fact that last night she spent oodles of time in Castor's room with him, especially last night. She was wearing her big fluffy housecoat, with Castor tucked inside on her lap. She fed him a can of tuna while he was nestled in her housecoat. It was a good last meal. Although he hadn't purred in at long, long time, both meommy and daddy thought they might have heard him pur last night... just a little.

Meommy is so sad right now. Castor was much too young to go over the rainbow bridge. She's sad that he was alone when he went. She's sad for me, because now I am all alone. She's sad that she couldn't have done more for Castor. I've been purring my hardest for her, but the tears keep falling. Please pur some comfort to our family right now. We will miss Castor......

Please Purr for Castor

We've been furry reluctant to post about Castor's condition, as it appears to be worsening. Meommy put Castor in his own room for a while, and the beans would visit him periodically to try to acclimate him to being around them again. He seemed to tolerate that, even from the little bean sometimes. Other times, he'd hide. Some days, he'd be very growly to the bean and daddy. He even attacked daddy once, and scratched him on his nose. One day, he had apparently been hiding all day and peed on himself even though he was in the room by himself and had no reason to be hidey. Meommy took him back to the vet the next day and asked him to check him over. The vet gave him an antibiotic that is supposed to last two weeks on the chance he has a urinary tract infection or even a neurological infection that could be causing his behavioral changes. He said if it doesn't work, we should consider pheremone treatments. Meommy just went in for her evening visit with Castor, and has discovered he hasn't eaten or pooped today. He also is walking funny. We are thinking his problem is something seriously wrong with him neurologically. She's taking him back to the vet again tomorrow morning. It's not looking good for him. Please pur for my brother. I think he really, really needs some purrs. Meommy is furry worried about him, and has been crying a bunch lately.

A bit of a problem....

Hey Effurry body! Pollux here. We've been away for a furry long time. Meommy has been furry busy with work and with our bean's preschool. We understand meommy's work is furry kewl, but we've missed our furriends.

We've been having a bit of troubles that we've been having a hard time admitting to, and a tougher time finding a solution. You see, Castor has been getting more like a feral cat. Effurry month that goes by, he gets worser and worser. It started out OK.. When we first came to our home, Castor would growl at the bean when she came into meommy's room in the morning. But, he wouldn't hide when she was awake. It progressed and he would hide when the bean was around. H'e gotten to the point that only meommy can be around him. If daddy and the bean are around, he won't even come out for stinky goodness. He still sleeps in the bed with meommy and daddy. That's the only time he will tolerate being in close proximity to daddy anymore.

Let me stress that daddy and the bean have NEVER done anything mean to Castor. And the vet has checked Castor out. He's physically fine. But he's got a heck of a mean streak. He doesn't like playing wif me anymore. When I try to play, Castor runs away or fights back aggressively. I just want to play, but Castor, well, he hurts me sometimes and I gets scratches on me.

Meommy and daddy have been trying furry hard to coax Castor out of his shell, but he just seems to be getting progressively worse. It breaks meommy's heart to think of separating us. It breaks my heart too. We're looking for any recommendations of how to work wif him and make him less scardy and aggressive. He's furry growly and scratchy, and bitey. We don't think his quality of life is furry good since he hides all day. Please let us know if you can think of anything we can do to bring him around.

Meezer Monday- Recovery is Good

Hello Effurrybody! One thing I can say that has been good about being sicky. You certainly get a whole lotta pampering when you are recovering. Meommy got the results of the biopsy and they don't think it was a food allergy. So, stinky goodness is back on the menu! Meommy hasn't been skimping on it either 'cause I losted some weight while I was sick. So, here I am happily bellied up to the bar enjoying a can of the good stuff!


I'm a good brother. I know Castor was worried about me, so I am sharing my stinky goodness with him. Even though he IS getting a little pudgy and probably doesn't need it!

Thanks again effurryone for your purrs. I really needed it! I didn't let meommy know how bad I felt until it was almost too late. The VET said that if I hadn't gone to see him when we did, I could have gone over the bridge. I am much too young for that. Meommy says she is gonna be extra vigilent with me from now on. I don't let on how bad I feel. So at the smallest sign of problems, meommy has vowed to wisk me off to the VET again.

Pollux is Home!

And feeling MUCH better! We found out what my poor brother's trouble was and it wasn't an obstruction after all. He had a severe bacterial infection in his colon. It was so bad that the VET said tissue was sloughing off when he used the endoscope. The bacteria create gas as a bi-product and it caused his colon to be distended to about the size of a roll of sausage. Not Good! He said he was furry surprised that Pollux wasn't acting like he felt much, much worse. Meommy and daddy were very smart beans to see that he didn't feel good and took him to the VET. My meommy and daddy love us soooo much! So, all he has to do is take antibiotics. The VET said that he could have developed the problem as a result of an acquired food allergy. He took biopsies and will know Monday if we need to be on speshul foods that won't hurt Pollux's tummy.

We are all Furry grateful to have Pollux safely home and feeling better! Thanks to all you felines that purred for all of us! We couldn't imagine life without our Pollux. Especially me. I've never been separated from my brother for so long, and it made me skeered. I've been spending a lot of my time hiding under couches. Meommy said I shouldn't be skeered, but it made me nervous. I feel so much better now!

Purrs and headbutts to all my caring friends!
Castor