MORPHEUS

Hi.

This is Morpheus.  He is our twelve year old domestic short-hair tabby.  He is also the sweetest, most gentle and handsomest man I know.



I met him in October of 2005 along with his partner-in-crime, Romeo.  Aumie used to always joke that the whole reason I fell in love with him was because of his cats.  It's true.  A single, well-adjusted and handsome man living alone with two amazing cats?  Yes, please.  I remember how excited Aumie was to finally introduce me to them.  There was just so much love between the three of them.  They had far more personality than any cats I had ever met before.  They thought they were dogs or human.

This spring my little lion man, Romeo, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that was embedded in his cheek.  He underwent surgery to remove the lump and the results came back great.  The doctor informed us that 99% of it was gone.  We were relieved and ecstatic.  A few months later it came back more aggressive than ever until it broke through his cheek causing him to bleed for an entire day.  That night I sobbed as I held him in my hands, told him how much I loved him, and watched him drift off.  We sobbed for days.  Slowly the sobs became intermittent cries.  It was only three months ago.  We were not prepared to deal with it all over again, both financially and emotionally.

Six weeks ago we took Morpheus into see the vet for a routine checkup.  We wanted to make sure he was healthy as we didn't want to lose another one of our boys.  His health came back perfect.  They loved him as they loved Romeo.  "So much personality" they told us.  At home he was cuddly, talkative but seemingly lonely.  He'd pace around the house and want attention even more than usual.  After a lot of conversation, we adopted little Peanut.

Unfortunately, Peanut came to us with an upper respiratory infection.  His body was supposed to be able to fight it but I found myself rushing him to the doctor when he started mouth breathing.  They put him on antibiotics to help fight any secondary issues that may arise.  We kept Peanut secluded to try not to pass the URI to Morpheus.  A few weeks later Morpheus had it full blown.  Our vet believed Morph's body could fight it without the aid of antibiotics.  We monitored him and gave him Lysine treats.

Then everything changed.

One night he just seemed extremely lethargic and like he lost a lot of weight.  I grabbed his favorite treats, Greenies, waved them around his face and he just ignored them. One of the biggest indications is that he wasn't licking me either.  He always licks me.  It was 12am when we rushed him to Dove Lewis.  They just thought it was all part of the URI.  We were off.

I have been back to Dove Lewis nine times now.  Twice while visiting him in ICU and the rest to pick or drop him off.   We have had a cat scan, blood work, x-rays and urine analysis performed.  All come back to the fact that he is a healthy cat.  He is a healthy cat that is somehow now extremely sick.

He had to have an esophagostomy tube planted last week just to help him.  He was suffering from anorexia so he just needed to be aided in getting his levels and nutrition back up.  He could still eat.  However, when I picked him up he was so very lethargic.  Romeo had to have anesthesia so the symptoms were relatively similar.  After 24 hours pass, they should be back to normal.  Morpheus didn't come back to normal.  He sat alone for most of the time, sleeping.  If he wasn't sleeping, he was just staring off.  He would turn his head when you called him, wouldn't rub against the hairbrush when you brought it to him and would barely move.  We kept his feedings on schedule but through the suggestion of our vet  we cut back on the anti-nausea medication as that could be what was causing his drowsiness.  The next day he started vomiting.  Again, we rushed him to Dove Lewis.

I was there for three hours last night as the doctor informed us he was dehydrated and very sick again.  Somehow he got an infection, possibly during the surgery.  He is being treated with intravenous fluids and a dose of antibiotics.  Dove Lewis and us are stumped.  He's not a dying cat but for some reason his body has been shutting down.

Which brings me to this, we have spent over $7,000 in the last month treating him.  We were still reeling from Romeo's costly surgery that amounted to $8,000.  We have entirely depleted our savings account that was for a down payment on a house.  I understand that the amount of care may seem astronomical or just stupid to some but if someone gave you nearly seven years of completely love and happiness, wouldn't you do whatever you could to help them?  We do and we would do it all over again.

Last night in ICU I received a message from Nathan.  He wished me well and asked for my Paypal address.  All he told me is he just wanted to do something nice for me after I questioned as to why he he'd  want it.  I figured that he was going to donate something so I pleaded for him to tell me what he wanted in return. He said he'd think about it.

Then he told me that he and Kimber did something for me.  I looked at his blog and just broke down in the waiting room.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Words will never express how much everyone who has helped means to me.  From the simple reblogging to the donations, you are incredible.  I truly believe in paying it forward and I will do my utmost best to return the favor someday.  You are incredible and I love you.

I am setting up an Etsy that will have prints for sale but if you want any in the meantime, please feel free to look through my flickr and send me an email at aayla@ipawyou.com.

Thank you, everyone.

xoxoxox

Edit: here is a link for some prints for sale.