Quarantine

At first, I thought it was just behavioral. Zoe is very much MY cat, she's my shadow. When I flew to IN in late August, it was no surprise to learn that she'd gone into her depression mode. When the mama ain't home, there ain't no reason to get up. In addition to being a slug, she started making the living room her litter box, which is a huge no-no. When I got home, the behavior hadn't improved. It wasn't a daily mishap, but it would happen once or twice a week and that was clearly, once or twice a week too much.

I then realized I'd seen this behavior before when my twenty-two year old cat, Kitty *RIP*, was going into kidney failure. Zoe is eleven which makes her a mature cat for sure. I felt the fear creeping in... the reality of age on a cat and how the body is impacted by those years. I wasn't ready to let her go and because of that, I've postponed taking her to the vet. After another "accident" last week, I knew that it was the final straw and I couldn't postpone any longer. So, on Friday I took her to see her vet, who is married to my GP, so we're keeping it all in the family. Zoe was sweet as could be, purring for the vet tech and never once showing a claw. They ran an urinalysis on her and I was very happy to see that the results were all within the normal range. Some were high within the normal range, but nothing alarming. There was no need to say my farewells and I was relieved by that.

She is, however, in quarantine. For the next 10 days, she is sequestered in my bedroom with her own food, drink and litter box, which is in the bathroom. This isolation is to retrain her to use the litter box and give me a chance to monitor her food and water intake. We use a trough system here, so the girls (I have three indoor cats) are free to eat and drink when they like. In addition to her own private suite, she must take an antibiotic twice a day. I sneak that snack in little blobs of canned cat food, or "meaty treaties" as they're called here at the Kitty Casa.

The queen treatment seems to be suiting her well. She's a little lethargic but then again, she's never been little miss active. I don't mind having to spend time with her in my room. It gives me a chance to read and write and relax to the wonderful sound of her purring.