Haven’t blogged in a while. Ooooops.
Two weekends ago we had a sad one. One of the cats, Mumu, who was 15 years old, had been losing weight and coughing a little. We took her to the vets a few weeks back, diagnosed her with hyperthyroidism and started her on tablets. The vet noticed a ‘cloudy area’ in one of her lungs on the chest x-ray but said not to worry about it for now, to focus on getting her better with the tablets. Hyperthyroidism can cause breathing problems and the vet thought it’d clear up in time. Mumu did very well on the tablets, but was still coughing. A week later her cough was much worse, she was noticably struggling to breathe, so we took her back to the vet. They took another chest x-ray and saw that one of her lungs was completely filled with fluid, probably the result of a tumour, so she was using just one lung to breathe. The process of having the x-ray had stressed her out so much that she’d started hyperventilating. They could have drained the fluid with a needle but not only would that have caused her more discomfort, but it would have filled up again within the week. There was no chance of operating on her in her state, she was too old and too frail from the hyperthyroidism. So we decided the best thing to do – the only reasonable thing to do to avoid any more stress for Mumu – was to put her to sleep 
Poor Mumu.
Last week Jaco got ill with Teh Fluzorzzz of Dooom. He took the Thursday and Friday off work and we vegetated over the long weekend. He’s still not quite right but muuuuuch better than he was. Being fed by a Pixie with chocolate and hot drinks does wonders \o/
My mum did some online shopping for us and had it delivered to us via our local grocery store. She bought lots of nummy things like chokits and sundried tomatoes and sliced meats and olives and cheeeeeses and dips and other various noms. Yay 
Sooooo… not much else going on. We’ll get back to working on the site soon, get blog subscriptions up and running and stuff.
Oh, we saw the new Star Trek movie and it was Le Rawk.
I leave you all with this ingenious hilarity:
Kittie safety-mittens!
I’d sad to read about Mumu’s departure from this world. We have an aged cat, too, and she recently battled a bladder infection (successfully). So now she is back to being her usual ornery self. She has lost a lot of weight, too, but the vet checked her urine and said the signs are all good. That’s Maggie, and she is 16, going on 17.
Glad to hear Jaco is doing better from whatever he had.
The yodeling cat. A lost art.
I’m sorry about your cat – losing a pet is rough!
Poor Jaco, it truly sucketh being sick. The next time I get that way I am going to order myself a pixie to serve me chocolate. No no no, I didn’t mean you. You’re a honey but I’d rather have a sexy boy pixie! Know of any?
I worked in a vet’s surgery for a while and was disgusted at this lady who was morbidly keeping her white Persian alive by bringing her in twice to have her lungs lanced, just to keep her alive because SHE couldn’t bring herself to say goodbye. I held the kitty as the vet drained her lungs and I was crying for her… she was so sick, and the lancing hurts like a bitch for the poor cats. We refused the third time she asked us to drain the cat’s lung, and insisted on putting the poor creature to sleep. The stupid f@#!wits like her were the reason I couldn’t go to uni and do veterinary science… I couldn’t deal with irresponsible pet owners… I got too angry at them. There was another dog owner who brought her Shepherd in for a pregnancy termination when the puppies were too far advanced. I watched as the vet cut open the womb and removed seven beautiful little sleeping puppies, complete with whiskers and claws but no hair. All because the stupid idiot hadn’t desexed her dog to begin with.
I’m ranting.
What I meant to say was that I am glad you knew when the time was right to say goodbye because you are responsible pet owners.
And also, I laughed my head off at that video. Literally.
I can’t find it now. I can’t even see the monitor right now because my eyes rolled under the couch.
Sorry to hear about Mumu
15 years is a solid age for a cat, though. I bet she had a good cat life 
Cats must be the goofiest animals ever
Mumu was awesome, and a tough gal too. She was born in Alaska and was my former wife (now best friend)’s cat. They lived in Louisiana and Maine before moving here to South Africa.
About four/five years ago, just after moving here, Mumu got sick, so we took her to a podunk vet near where we used to live. The vet’s first question was “do you want to put her down?” without even properly examining her. We said no… I mean for feck’s sake… make a diagnosis first before going all farm-vet on us. So they sent away for blood tests, and the results came back. The vet told us that nothing was wrong with here… just one number that’s slightly off with her liver, but it’s probably nothing.
We did our own research and the symptoms seemed to indicate hepatic lipidosis… and indeed, after urging to test for it, it turned out to be exactly that. I felt like murdering the vet. Again she asked to put the cat down… and we said no, since the illness is treatable. Mumu spent a week in hospital, and then started getting better. She has not been ill since then.
So… stupid vet nearly ended her life years before now.
Same with Koekie, a white cat we adopted off the street. He came to us with skin cancer. We took him to a vet near here, and the vet said that we have the option of having his ears and nose docked, but then started hinting that maybe the cat should be put down because it would diminish his “quality of life”. Fucking dumb vet! We went to a specialist who then docked the ears and nose. The cat’s life improved dramatically. He’s playful, cuddly, chases his own tail, wrestles with the other male cat, hangs out with this best buddy the dog and generally has a grand ole time.
So sorry to hear about your cat. You did the right thing though.
Our dog is almost 14, is almost blind and is deaf. He has a little bit of hip and leg problems, arthritis, but, we have him on some over the counter stuff and he seems happy and still has lots of energy. BUT, the day he even begins to look like he is in pain or suffering in any way, I won’t hesitate to let him go.
Sorry about your cat – that’s always so upsetting even though it was the right thing to do.
Glad you’re still thinking about adding subscriptions – I do miss that bit but the site is lovely and stable – thanks.
It’s always painful to have to say goodbye to a long time family member. At 15 I’d imagine that Mumu had it pretty good.
That video was great! They seemed to love the abuse! A yodeling cat….woulda thunk.