I LOVE my kitty!! I've had him since I was about 8 or 9, so he is an old man!! I have been trying to find some pictures of him when he was a kitten, but I have not had much luck!! I will have to try harder and then come back and edit this post!My cat does some pretty funny things!! Sometimes he drinks water from him paw. He scoops it out and licks it from him dirty paw!! Haha!! It's pretty dang cute to watch. And sometimes he will pick food up in his paw, swipe it through the water and then eat it!! He also knows exactly where the kitty treats are in the house and heads there right away when he makes it inside!!
When he's not sleeping (which he does more and more of) he is a climber!! We have found him in some interesting places!! One day my brother came in to the house and told me to hurry outside. He and my dad had been cleaning out the garage, so it was empty. They could here the cat meowing and couldn't figure out where it was coming from!! They realized that he was on the shelves.... above our garage!! I wish I would have thought to grab my camera!! Silly kitty!! He had jumped from the stairs to our Suburban and the climbed onto the shelves. Well, the car was gone now and we was looking down at us with huge eyes that said "HELP ME". It was pretty dang funny!! But he's also smart!! He's never gotten himself stuck up there again!! But he has been known to climb up on some other garage shelves and make himself comfortable!!
He loves rolling around on the cement on a warm day and lays in the dirt when it is hot! He also likes hanging out under bushes and trees to keep cool. In the summer I love sitting outside brushing him!! He gets so relaxed and it's funny to watch his face!!
Well a few weeks ago I started to notice that something was not right with him. He was drinking lots of water. I would fill his dish and he would have the whole thing gone in a matter of minutes!! And he stopped drinking water out of his paw. He was sucking it down like there was no tomorrow!! His litter box got very very full (I'm sure you wanted to know that huh), and he started loosing lots of weight. If you have ever seen my Snowball, you know that he has always been a BIG kitty!! So I worried for a long time about what it could be. At one point my dad suggested it could be kidney failure, and I knew it was time for a visit to the vet.
The verdict: my poor kitty has diabetes. Cats should have a blood sugar level somewhere around 150/180. The vet has a chart that measures up to 450........... Snowball's blood sugar level was off the chart!! Poor thing!! They also weighed him and he only weighted 10 pounds. I don't know how much a cat is supposed to weigh, but he suddenly seemed so small. I realized I could fit my index fingers and thumbs around his middle. He was so tired, and so worn out. He usually isn't very cuddly but that day all he did was snuggle with me!
Look at him!! My poor baby!! I felt SO SO SOOOOO bad for him!! I felt terrible that I had waited so long to take him to the doctor!! He hates that cat carrier thing and all he wanted to do was lay in it! And he usually hates car rides and meows the whole way home. Not that day though!! He was just too weak and sick! =0( The vet showed us how to give him insulin shots; so every day, twice a day, we give him a shot. It's amazing how fast it can kick in. He had made a HUGE improvement just by the first afternoon. His levels are still high, but he is finally on the chart (last time he was checked he was in the 300 range).
I don't know how long we will do it for. Some people give me a hard time about it and say "it's just a cat" or "just put it to sleep" or "I cant believe you would spend money like that on a cat". It's kind of frustrating too me!! Would they not do that for their pets?? I hope they would!! I cant just sit back and let him die of dehydration or seizures (both possible if we don't keep it under control). I have had him as long as I can remember and it would be like loosing a family member!! I cried a lot the day I found out about it. He's always there for me to cuddle with when I have a bad day. He always seems to know when I need it because it is some of the only times he will let me cuddle him!! I love him...... he is my buddy and I will do what I have to, for as long and I have to, to keep him here with me!!
