We are not having a good start with our animals in 2022. I finally got concerned enough about DH’s cat, Visitor, to take him to the vet last week. He’d lost weight, wasn’t eating much, and just wasn’t his normal happy self. And… He is dying. His liver is failing, he has a tumor on his spleen, and his long-time heart murmur is pretty bad. We decided not to try to “save” him as there are too many things wrong. So he’s a hospice kitty now. We have a good friend who’s a hospice vet and will begin coming to the house to help us with him on the 17th, but frankly he may not live that long. He had taken to wanting to sleep next to me all night; he used to want to be with DH all the time. He’s just the best cat… I have had many cats, but none so wonderful as him. He showed up in a snowstorm in 2013, clearly not a feral, and we took him in… He is the cat who convinced DH that he really does like cats.
Then last night, the last of our pet rats died. Tailpuller, so named because when we met him he was hanging onto a bigger rat’s tail and following it around, came to us last spring. I’d taken in a 3 week old baby rat, “too nice to be snake food” according to the girl I got him from, and we got 2 friends for him, because the best toy for a rat is another rat. The first one, and one of the friends, didn’t last long, and Tailpuller was left. He was skittish, but he loved climbing up my arm to get a treat. Last night I heard a big commotion coming from his cage, and ran in just to see him have a seizure and die. At least it was quick.
Our remaining critters, little grey cat Naku and my horse Feronia, are doing well, but they are old. Naku is 21 years old - truly ancient - and other than being deaf as a post and treated for hyperthyroidism, is healthy for her age. My mare Feronia is 24, basically retired, happy enough but one of those easy keepers you worry about. I may need to move her but I have no idea where.