Making Light:  Author Identity Publishing ::: April 06, 2007, 11:59 AM

Tina@109 and Trip@130,

I sympathize with you and your kitties.  It's a wonderful and terrible
thing that we fall in love with beings who don't live as long as we do.

In regard to Trip's note, One of my cats has chronic renal failure, so
I'm going to be facing the same thing in (vet's estimate) a few weeks.

I hope your vet knows about feline CRF maintenance care, and has good
reasons for rejecting it.  When the cat's kidneys are functioning at
a inadequate level, it is possible to maintain quality of life with
regular subcutaneous fluid infusion, which is a form of osmotic
dialysis.  The injections, which I expected to be a horror for both
of us, turned out to be a bonding experience, a regular pet&purr time.

I maintained one cat for 18 months and another for 6 months on this
regimen.  Eventually they died--eventually they all die--but they were
healthy and happy during their treatment.  So this is a warning for us
all--watch your cat for evidence of rear leg weakness, excess water
consumption, and bad breath, and see the vet.  These may be symptoms
of the time in the life of your cat that when taken in the flood lead
on to an extended and enjoyable CRF maintenance experience.