Wandering Aimlessly

News on the cat front: we've decided to go with the amputation. I hope the decision is the right one. His surgery is Wednesday, and he will come home three-legged. I wish I could be there with him.

There were a number of things that tipped us toward the surgery. The vet said his leg breaking would happen before the cancer killed him, and if the bone breaks, it's lost enough bone mass that it will never heal and we'll have to put him down. Right now, he's healthy other than the leg. He's got a great attitude and appetite, and he's learned to compensate for not being able to bend his leg (it's in a cast from hip to toe). When he first got the cast put on, he wouldn't sit, he wouldn't get up onto things, he wouldn't go up stairs. He'd only stand and lay down, and laying down took a lot of effort and reorganization. Now, he's going along as if nothing was ever different. He gets up onto the couch, he sits with the leg sticking straight out, and he even goes up stairs. The vet thinks there's no reason to believe he won't adapt just as well to not having the leg there at all.

The other thing that pushed me towards the surgery was stories of other cats just as old as Specks is that survived cancer/surgery/whatever and went on to live a good handful of years, finally dying of old age. He's just too spirited and full of life to put him down now. That's so final.

So when I go home at Thanksgiving, my kitty's going to be a tripod.