I have had a lot of questions about our 20 year old cat Stella since she is special needs and I have been sharing some of her journey lately. I figured this might be a good time to deep dive into that exact journey.
- We know Stella is 20 and this is an end of life care plan for her and has been for a long time. We legit call it hospice care like if she was a human. We always have a goal of giving her the best life we can with her illness's and we know that there is no cure for what she has. Ryan and I have had lengthy conversations on this topic and we agree that once her bad days start to heavily outweigh the good then it will be time for her to go over the rainbow bridge and be put down. We are under no rose colored glasses thinking she will live forever. In fact I cannot believe she has lived this long!
- Stella has always been sickly. ALWAYS. When we picked her up at 5.5 years old she had barely any fur and was not eating. She has lived most of her life with on and off random issues. The biggest health problem she has is kidney disease. We are unsure how long she has had this disease but her phosphorus numbers are alarmingly high since the last time we bought her in for this last year. This causes issues with eating, going to the bathroom and sometimes pain for her.
- I want you to know that we are blessed. We have the means to take care of a special needs cat with bills running into the hundreds. We took her on and knew what we were getting into. It's why I am so passionate about Safe Haven and want people to donate to them for my birthday. I know the dedication of my time (no vacations without her), money and frustration (sanity) that it takes to give your all to taking care of a special needs animal. It is around the clock care there are no off days.
- I mean I want to take some time here to go over what we are currently doing for her treatment but it is ever evolving. It involves special medicated food to bring down her phosphorus levels, gravy meant for cats with kidney disease (yes gravy for cats!), antibiotic shots (she may need 2), meal stimulant's that you rub in her ear and you cannot pet her for 2 hours after, a phosphorus binder I had to order off of amazon and miralax mixed with milk. It's a lot... we make it work and I hope it will help within the next week.
- I know that some people read all this and think "why don't you put her down already she is 20?!" Listen... As a special needs human I think every life deserves a chance to live a happy life. If at 5.5 years old we would not have adopted Stella I assume they would have put her down she looked homeless with all that fur missing. Everyone in this world deserves to be loved and cared for. She is the most gentle/sweet soul and I know I don't regret any of the time or money over the years I have spend on caring for her. I am sure Ryan would agree.
Here are some of her cute pictures for you to enjoy.
Can you tell she loves her basket in her old age?
Be safe out there!
Emily
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