R.I.P. Tybalt 1998-2013

This is a really hard post to write. I'm sitting in a house which feels a lot colder and emptier than it ever did before.

I met Tybalt in 1998. I'd just managed to move out of shared, rented accommodation into a place of my own, so pets became a possibility, and I pretty much immediately started to look around for a kitten.

Kitten!

There was a card in one of the local pet shops offering grey kittens, free to good homes, and I'd always rather fancied a grey cat, so I arranged to go round to see them. They were adorable, and then their owners  said 'oh, and there's a tabby kitten from another litter. He's a bit older" so I explained that no, I really wanted a grey one.

And so, inevitably, 20 minutes later I was driving home with a small, fuzzy, annoyed tabby kitten in a cardboard box on the seat beside me, and he has been with me ever since.

I named him Tybalt, after the character in 'Romeo and Juliet' and on the basis of the notes on my school copy of the play, which said that Tybalt was a common name for pet cats in Shakespeare's day.

He never lived up to his name. He wasn't a rat-catcher, he wasn't a fighter. Indeed, if I didn't love him so much I might be tempted to say he was a bit of a wuss. He did run away from a rabbit, once. Admittedly, it was a large, and aggressive rabbit, but still. He used to moths, and the odd wasp which got itself trapped against the glass in the windows, and he tried to catch the vultures on David Attenborough's 'Life of Birds' (I had a really small TV then)

He was very nervous, to start with, and would rush off if I had the temerity to cough, or move, or breathe too heavily while he was sitting on me, but as he got older he got more relaxed. After 10 years or so he would even, occasionally, sit on people other than me, if I wasn't available.

Unlike many cats, he was unfazed by travelling, and after a few minutes complaining, would settle down in the car and snooze his way through the drive, and would then be perfectly happy in whatever new house I took him to.

He came to my parents home for Christmas, when he was younger he came with me to my grandmother's house (where it took him around 5 minutes to find the airing cupboard) and after these visits, he would always remember the houses, and be able to find his way to the warm spots, and to whichever bed I was sleeping in, without any difficulty, even after over a year.

He could be playful - my friend Stacy sent him a quilt filled with catnip, which he loved (the video was from when it first arrived)

He could be beautiful, and elegant, and sometimes he could be goofy as anything.

about 18 months ago he developed thyroid problems, and lost a lot of weight before he was properly diagnosed and stabilised, and he's started to slow down.

He spent a bit more time lounging and snoozing, and a little less playing, but he still enjoyed life, and in particular the extra treats and meals he got to try to get his weight back up.

He continued to hold me responsible for the weather, and for anything else of which he disapproved,

Whenever I went away, leaving him to the tender mercies of visiting minions, he would loudly proclaim, on my return (and often while standing next to a well-filled bowl of cat biscuits) that he had been cruelly starved and neglected in my absence, and he would always forget and forgave, and be curled up on my lap purring loudly within minutes.

This morning, when I came downstairs to give him his breakfast, he was as pleased to see me as he normally is, but I found he had not eaten his supper, and he had no interest in his breakfast, or even in his sardine (the delivery method of choice for his medication) and he was wheezing and not breathing well.

He couldn't be bothered to hide when I got his carrier out, or to protest when I put him in it, or to hiss at the vet when we got there. I had to leave him there, so they could start treatment for likely acute anaemia, and do tests to see what was causing it. I got a call about 2 hours later, to confirm that the blood counts showed he was very anaemic, but that he was sleepy, not too stressed, and they were going to treat the symptoms while they waited for more test results to identify the cause, but then an hour or so later there was another call. He wasn't responding to the treatments, his condition had deteriorated a lot, very rapidly, and he was fitting. They didn't think he would make it long enough for me to get back to the vets so I could be with him while they put him to sleep, or fair to him to make him wait for me.

And now I am sitting here, in this suddenly empty house, with tears running down onto my keyboard, because I've just been able to write a whole post, without anyone walking over my keyboard, or butting at my hands until I remember that laps are for  cats, not laptops, and move it so he can sit there.

Tybalt. 1998-2013

Pestilence and Plague

OK, so maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but only  a little.

I came down with a perfectly revolting flu-ey bug, at the end of last week – mercifully the hearing I had, which was listed as a two day fully contested hearing, settled on the morning on the first day, and equally mercifully I had opted to travel in by train, as there isn’t much parking near the court which we were in, so I didn’t have to drive.

I was sneezing and coughing away as we waited, and realised when I got up to speak that the room was revolving gently around me, so as soon as we were done, I went home, and went to bed. I pretty much stayed there, except for brief forays down to the sofa, until Monday. Which I can’t help feeling was a bit of a waste of a weekend.

I was particularly disappointed as it meant I missed a trip to the cinema to see the National Theatre Live broadcast of ‘Timon of Athens’, had to cancel a dinner with my elderly cousin, and (worst of all, because unlike the others I can’t rearrange it) missed Thea Gilmore’s performance in Bristol on Monday evening. It’s a damn shame – it’s about 2 years since she last played locally, and I was really looking forward to seeing her again.

I am not feeling much better – still have an impressive hacking cough, but it is improving, and I managed a half day at work on Tuesday, and full days since then.

Today I had to take Tybalt to the vet to have bloods taken – he has been losing weight again, and not eating well, which is a worry. I took him to the vet 2 weeks ago, because I was worried about him. He turned out to be running a slight temperature, so he was given antibiotics and painkillers, and his review (for his thyroid problem) brought forward from January to today.

He did not enjoy his visit to the vet. He has been subjected to the indignity of being weighed, and listened to, and having bloods taken, and his results should be available on Monday.

I am really hoping that this is something which can be treated by tweaking his meds, and not the effect of new, and different medical problems.

Ooops. Slight lack of blogging

Oh dear, I've not really got on with the blogging this year, have I? Since going back to work I seem to have had no time or energy for anything else. But it's almost the weekend, so: quick update time.
Tybalt is doing much better. He had a further check up today, as he's now been on the meds for a month, so he has to have blood tests so they can check that he's having the right dosage. He'd put on another 300g, which means he has gained nearly 2lbs since he started treatment. He is, of course, not at all happy with me for taking him to the vet - and 3 times in a month is, he makes clear, wholly unacceptable. I have given him a spare sardine, however, and I think he is considering forgiving me...

In other news, I've been very busy at work - I seem to have spent vast amounts of time in court this week, mostly with good outcomes from a professional perspective, although sad in other ways. (A child being removed from parents is never good, even when it is the least-worst option for the child concerned..)

There have been a few other things going on causing me a lot of stress, which always causes me to sleep badly, so I get stuck into a cycle of sleeping badly, so having no energy to do much except work, which in turn means little time or energy to do anything fun, which adds to the stress... All of which means that life becomes a little dull, and there is nothing to blog about.

I shall try to do better this weekend.