The Most Expensive Cat IN THE WORLD

Thursday morning when I was feeding the Z, I saw Grimmy squat like he was peeing over by her diapers.  Since he has been "inappropriately eliminating" for over a year now, this didn't surprise me, but I was surprised because a. he normally does his business on the kitchen, not the bedroom, floor, and b. he normally does his business in private.  I yelled at him and he stopped, but there was no pee there.  Then I saw what looked like the same thing over by the chest, and then again on P's jeans, and then again INSIDE the box of Z wipe refills.  Once Z's bottle was done I checked all 3 locations and none were wet.

A long time ago a friend had a kitty who almost died due to a bladder obstruction, and I remembered her saying that the warning sign was that he was squatting and not peeing.  I passingly wondered if I needed to be worried and take him to the vet.  I decided not to because I had missed work the day before for my pointless boob appointment.

When I got home that evening, I didn't see Grimmy til after Z went to sleep.  P called me over and said he looked sick.  I found him prone in the closet, breathing rapidly.  He hardly lifted his head when I approached.  I sat on the floor and petted him and he barely responded.  I had an overwhelming feeling that he was dying.  Then P and I debated whether I was over-reacting: did he need to go to an emergency vet right now, or could he wait for morning?  I really felt like he couldn't wait, so P got him loaded (still not without a fight, that's my Grimmy!) into the cat carrier and off I went.

I was right: blocked urethra.  Arg, how I wish I had taken him that morning!!  It was an expensive and stupid mistake.

They took him for the procedure, and I headed home.  Got a call around 2am that he had complications: she was suspecting some sort of mass or something, and she was only able to get a hard catheter in after 1.5 hours of trying.  She recommended that I take him to a cat vet the next day for the soft catheter that he needed for several days.

Now, let's stop right there.  I set a price limit for myself before I went to the e-vet.  Their quote was higher than that limit, but not by much, which is why I left him for the procedure and didn't ask them to put him down.  Don't get me wrong.  I love this cat like no other cat I've ever owned.  But he has spent the last year peeing/pooping on my kitchen floor.  And I'm a city girl with a country heart.  I am going to outlive all my cats except the one that I get when I'm like 90.  Cats die.  One does not spend thousands of dollars saving the short life of an animal.  It's just how I was raised.  So when the vet's quote exceeded my self-imposed limit, I'll admit that I hesitated, but not for too long, because it didn't exceed it by much, and it was a totally treatable condition, and for goodness' sake, he's only 7 years old.  I could love him for another decade easily!  It just seemed like I shouldn't let him die from this, right now.

But when she called to say there were complications, ooooh crap, maybe I made the wrong choice. But at that point I was in it for the long haul (within reason).  It would be like flushing all the money I spent that night down the toilet to say if I didn't see it through!

So Grimmy went to the cat-specific vet.  Where they said that he didn't have a tumor or a block or anything, just a very tiny urethra.  Good to know.  They quoted me the same amount as the e-vet to REDO the procedure with the proper catheter.  Piss (literally).  Now I'm in it for just over double what I originally authorized myself to spend.

And he needed to stay at the vet for monitoring.  I'm sure that'll be more money.

The most expensive cat in the world.  Behold the Grimmy at the vet in his fashionable accoutrement.

He'll be coming home in his 300 snow-white horse-drawn diamond-crusted carriage this evening.  Perhaps if I get him a marble litterbox he'll deign to use it instead of the floor?