Oscar.

I felt like a mother yesterday for the first time ever in my life, sitting in a private waiting/exam room at the Loveland Cat Clinic. Over the weekend, as I was enjoying my lazy, snowy day inside, drinking coffee and blogging as I usually do, I noticed Oscar, my cat child was acting a little weird. And by weird I mean cuddly. Since I've had Oscar, so for about two and half-ish years, he's always been shy and somewhat skittish. I somewhat just came to accept that he was just a different cat. I thought of myself as the mother with one very social, outgoing child, (Olive) and one not so outgoing and extremely shy child (Oscar). Hey, who knows, someday that may be accurate. Over the past few months, Oscar has become more and more lazy. He very rarely comes out of our closets to hang out with Joel and I and when Olive wants to play, he gets scared and runs away until she stops chasing him. Poor Olive just wants her brother back, the one that she came to know and love when she was a little six month old kitten. He has gotten more and more skinny and no longer looks fluffy and beautiful like he did the day we adopted him. I tried to keep up with brushing him and cutting out his little dread locks that have acquired over time but I could no longer keep up with them. He has always been a weirdo when it comes to eating too. He never eats straight from his bowl of food. He'll take out one or two pieces of dry cat food, put it on the floor, next to the bowl and eat it that way, very daintily.Which breaks my heart because yesterday I found out why he's been doing this. And he's been doing this for way too long. That night, I started looking online, reading about signs and symptoms of common cat illnesses and also found the clinic that I took him too and reading about the vet there, I knew that was where I wanted to take him. As I read, he became more and more snuggly. I thought to myself, "Please don't die tonight." Knowing that animals get that way right before they die and knowing that I would have to deal with it alone, because Joel was out of town in Breck visiting some friends. Oscar slept with me that night (which he hasn't done forever) and when I woke up in the morning, he was quick to jump back up on my bed and cuddle me some more. I knew after that night and morning, that it was definitely time to stop putting off bringing him in. He had every sign and symptom of Feline Leukemia to a 'T'.

After waiting for almost an hour, I kid you not, Joel and I joked about asking for a discount since we waited so long. But then quickly decided that was definitely not going to happen, because we felt so thankful and relieved by the end of our appointment. We high-fived after being told that Oscar tested negative for Feline Leukemia and FIV but were moderately heart broken when the vet told us that he has a very bad disease of the mouth and gums, I can't remember the name. But, we were told it's not contagious (thinking of Olive) and it's genetic. I just thought back to over a year ago, when he would eat weird and sometimes choke on his food and I then I feel even more horrible because I now know that he was uncomfortable and  struggled with eating for this reason. It has gotten so bad, that almost all of his teeth need to be pulled. This explains why he has lost weight, and has an extreme case of dreadlocks; because it hurts him to eat and to bathe himself, pretty much do anything with his mouth. 
Poor. Little. Man.
After being the most calm, collected little thing, and sitting so nicely through being shaved, we were sent home with antibiotics, pain medication, cans of recovery food packed with crazy amounts of nutrients, as well as ham flavored baby food, and are scheduled for his teeth pulling extravaganza next week. My heart broke and got all warm at the same time, as the vet shaved him and Oscar pulled her arm closer with his paw and then gave her a loving snuggle and head but to the shoulder as she finished removing all his mats. She said they were so matted, it was uncomfortable even for him to walk and thank goodness I didn't try and cut them myself because they were so close to the skin, I could have cut right into him and not have known. The uncomfortableness explains why he has pretty much been camped out in our closet and guest bedroom closet for the last however long.

We got home, gave Oscar his first round of pain medication and antibiotics and watched him eat more in one sitting than we've seen him eat since we've lived here in CO. And it might have been in my head, but his belly felt full and plump as ever, even after that first can of recovery soft food. Olive, I know, feels very left out, as I've been opening cans of food for Oscar, and spending time with him, cuddling him in between his bites, so I've let her lick the can and finish what he has refused to finish. I can't wait for Oscar to run away from her and chase her back once he feels better again. 

Last night, I thought how thankful I felt that Joel didn't have a show and was able to go with me to the clinic. We talked about how weird it would be, to have a child, instead of a kitty sitting with us in the waiting room as we waited for the doctor. No thank you, we aren't ready for that one just yet. I feel so happy and relieved that we don't have to put him down and reassured that Oscar will make a full recovery and once again, be a normal cat.