The Louis Experience

He's cute to look at, isn't he? Yesterday this cute kitty gave me fits. Literally.

It all started Saturday night. He was walking through the living room while Cort and I watched TV, when he paused, mid-step, and fluffed his tail. I asked Cort what he was doing, so Cort pushed him a little and low and behold, there was a little pee puddle. Louis has NEVER done anything like this before...ever. He has been angry at one of us and gone on something we own (a pillow, a blanket, a stuffed animal), but never just on the floor, and never without squatting. So I shushed him downstairs and proceeded to freak right out.

You see, small, accidental puddles can be the first sign of a UTI and UTI's in male cats, if not addressed RIGHT AWAY can be fatal. Hence the freak out.

Cort calmed me down and we kept an eye on him all of Sunday. He seemed fine, but Cort called the vet first thing Monday morning anyway to appease me. Sure enough, the vet wanted to see him ASAP.

I took him in and the vet couldn't find any blockage that would be a UTI, but he was very concerned when he weighed Louis and he had lost 3 pounds since his last visit. Apparently cats don't just lose weight like that. He wanted to keep him for some blood work and and urinalyses. So I left my little buddy there. I hardly got into my car and on the phone with Cortney and I was already bawling. And I coudln't stop.

I got home and bawled for an hour. You see, Louis will be 15 this month--pretty old--and I have had him all 15 of those years. I picked him from the litter and took him home with me. He has been my little buddy for 15 years! We have grown so attached to each other that when I am crying, he usually walks around wailing as I wail, and when i am sick, he cuddles by me like he is standing guard. When I had my last miscarriage he sat up all night in the hallway by me and finally pawed at the bedroom door until Cort got up and then proceeded to meow at Cort!

He's my friend, as silly as that may sound to some people, and I just couldn't imagine what I would do if he really was sick.

Finally Cortney calmed me down through a series of emails from work, and I cleaned up my face.

At 2:00 we still hadn't heard back from the vet, so Cort called. They hadn't found anything, but were still doing tests.

I picked him up at 4:00 and again, the vet just couldn't find anything. He did find bacteria in Louis' urine, so they gave us an antibiotic for that--just in case it was a bladder infection (although there was no blood in the urine to confirm that). He also said they were sending some blood to MSU to do a test of Louis's thyroid since a bladder infection wouldn't explain his weight loss. We will get those results back either at the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

Until then, we have Louis home, and we are trying to fatten him up the old-fashioned way: food! As fat as Louis has always been, I never thought i would be concerned about him needing to gain weight, but we are trying to make sure he always has food in his bowl.

So my old man friend is on stool softners and may have a thyroid issue. Good grief. At least he is here to still be my little buddy!!!