"Insulin and din-din!" I call to my grey cat, Kaden, every morning. He runs to sit at my feet mewing. Well, sometimes mewing little quack-like noises other times simply opening and closing his mouth with no sound. A diabetic side effect. Kaden gets insulin by needle, 2 units, twice a day. In the morning I inject him as he eats his soft food; in the evening, around twelve hours later, I give him his needle as he eats a handful of treats. Fortunately for us both, he has the absolute sweetest temperament and even before I caught on to injecting him while he was busy eating, he would come and sit patiently while I fumbled around trying to bunch up his skin and poke him. When he goes for his full day blood glucose curve monitoring at the vets, I get little notes from her calling him 'such a sweet boy' and saying what a 'very good boy' he was as always. His diabetes has steadied out well and he only goes for these day long tests twice a year now. It took a little experimentation with doses before we hit on what works best for him but he's been doing so well for the last several months. He is curious, playful and active and playful.And I'm very thankful. Kaden is 12 years old and we've been together for 11 of those years. All those years ago, I was typing a congratulatory email to a writer friend but had to apoligise for any typos. I couldn't really see properly as I was in floods of tears. I'd had to put my cat Whiskers to sleep a couple of days earlier and I couldn't stop crying. I mentioned this to my friend who responded immediately saying that his girlfriend and her daughter Ashleigh had rescued a kitten from the local garbage dump a year before but they needed to find him a good home now as they had too many rescued animals. Was I interested? My head wrote the return email saying I needed to think about it but my heart was already out the door buying new dishes and pet food. They lived a couple of hours away in another town but drove in with Kaden a few days later and I fell in love with him as soon as I saw him. As the family drove out of my driveway, Kaden stood on his hind paws, his nose against the front screen door and watched them drive away. His little gesture touched my heart. I hoped he would be as happy with me. When Kaden and I first started going for monthly visits to the vets to regulate his insulin dose when he was 10, who should be the technician-in-training one time, but Ashleigh. She recognised Kaden straight away but said he didn't seem particularly interested in her. I like to think he knew her. At a time when I was very worried about his health, Ashleigh said that he looked well and that I was obviously taking good care of him. Actually, I think Kaden and I take good care of each other. He makes it all so easy. Wishing you a day of easeful loving.
10 Comments
Lisa
4/23/2021 09:47:17 am
Awww, what a love. He looks so sweet and I hope you continue to care for each other for many, many more years. ❤️
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Deb M
4/23/2021 06:04:03 pm
AWWWW♥ I'm so happy you have each other!
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Samm Starrs
4/24/2021 07:09:43 pm
"...but my heart was already out the door buying new dishes and pet food." <-- LOL I felt this deep in my heart. What a gorgeous boy he is. I didn't know what we call the 'silent meow' is side effect of cat diabetes. That makes me worry for my now 6-old-girl cause she sometimes does the silent meow and we love it, it's so cute but uhoh! Seriously cute kitteh though!
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Cheryl Turtlemoon
4/25/2021 12:24:43 am
It’s so lovely that he came into your life! Such a beautiful cat, and such wonderful company.
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Susan Renshaw
4/25/2021 01:17:30 am
What a lovely story!
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aww what a sweetiepie! I had a diabetic cat too, he was such a lovely boy, never complained even when I was useless at trying to take blood for testing and could never find the vein lol. I'm glad he's happy and healthy and you have the right dosage. <a href="https://empireofthecat.com">Elle xx</a>
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AuthorWelcome! I'm Sue Blott: a writer of all things, a poet at heart, mom, wife, daughter, step-mom, grandma, tea drinker, tai chi-er, mystic, artist, dreamer...and now a blogger! This is my world. Categories |