Hey Jude.....

16 years of stinky canned cat food, numerous vet bills, even stinkier cat litter changes, furniture scratched and destroyed, hairball puke....and I still love my girls!

My sweetie pie Jude started puking large amounts just after we returned home from our Christmas trip....I'm talking like LARGE amounts. Not to be grossly graphic, but one morning I heard that horrible gulping sound coming from behind me....you know that sound that is similiar to a cat drowning and gasping for air..you cat people know what I mean, and you also know what follows. Yep, the wonderful hairball puke. Only when Jude was doing this for a few days, when she finally did puke....it was like a hairlall ocean....coming from a kittie fountain. Yuck.

Anyhow, after a few days of this, I knew it was time to do the unthinkable task of loading Jude up and heading to the vet. The thought of pulling my own teeth out with rusty plyers while blindfolded with barbed wire is more appealing then taking Jude into a moving vehicle, to a place that just the initial scent upon entering causes her body and neurological system to malfunction and release poo in her pet taxi....sorry, too graphic again.

Jude and her lovely sister, Avery have been my babies for many years.....after many moves and yearly vet trips, Jude just decided she did not want to be toted around anymore, and she basically flat-out refused to go in a taxi. At about 12 years of age, the vet told us the stress of taking her to a vet was going to lead to an early demise...I think he just couldn't take the howling sounds Jude made from the carrier for the whole hour we were in his office. We were very fortunate to find a mobile vet in Lubbock to take care of our shots and what not, so the problem seemed solved. However, since moving to Austin, finding a great mobile vet has not been easy....as soon as we tell them the age of out pets (My dogs: Poncho is 15, Bandit is 10, Cats: 16), they freak and tell me I will need to take them to a stationed office...."just in case".

DO THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE ASKING ME TO DO?????

Sadly, the day we took Jude, all the throwing up had caught up with her, and she was feeling pretty yucky.....yucky enough to not rip Doug's arm off when he placed her in the carrier....yucky enough to only make small howling noises, and yucky enough to not poo or puke the whole trip there. I did not go to the vet....Doug was the brave soldier. I made him promise me that he would come home with my baby, or come get me if it looked like she might not be able to....

Every 10 minutes I called Doug on his cell phone to get an update on what was going on..."Did she scratch anyone, yet?"..No...."Did they have to tranquilize her?"....No...."Did you have to spray out the carrier when you got there?"....No....Doug reported back that Jude was actually very mellow and did not fight off care one bit. He also reported that her kidneys were failing, and she was getting cat dialysis.

The last time I took a pet to the vet and heard the diagnosis of kidney failure, two hours later I held my sweet dog Brandi in my arms for her last breaths....having your pets get old sucks.

Okay....now the happy part of the story! So Jude DID come home....she had a huge bubble tumor looking thing in her (basically injected meds and IV) that slowly disapated into her body over time...kittie dialysis. She savored her last bite of 9 Lives Egg and Tuna (well, savored it and then threw it up) that day....from now on, Jude is on a very strict perscription diet....seriously, did you even know a cat could get a RX card? Well, Jude has one, and we have to whip it out everytime we go to the specialitly store to get her million dollar food.

For $50, you too can be the proud owner of this much cat food.....

And I would pay any amount for this sweetie pie.......

Or this cutie...who, by the way, is also on the new diet as a prevenative measure....not that she needed to diet or anything......

So, Jude is doing great...she went from being a 18 lb cat 2 years ago, to a sleek 11 lbs. She is back to her chipper self, and she has been doing extra reps on the stairs to tone up after her weight loss.

Notice those bald spots on the back of her legs....those are from rubbing the carpet on the way down the stairs....she is also bald on her belly from the constant rubbing :)