At first she started making noises like she was lost, like she was unable to find where she was supposed to be. It progressed to shaking in what looked like uncontrollable spurts. The next symptom was a loss of appetite and an extreme amount of lethargy. Lately it has been the inability to see where she is going. You can tell her frustration. You can sense her loss. She is actually running into walls, chairs, others, and she never saw them coming.
Princess is our first addition to the family that Krista and I started. She has been with us since the summer of 1992 and she is now 17 years old. It doesn't sound like much, but Princess is our cat. 17 equates to something well over 100 in human years. She is more lovable now then she every was growing up. We are starting to attribute that to her inability to see. We have really started to notice it a lot this week. She just can't get to where she wants to without it being an enormous struggle. She still manages to smell her way around the house, getting to the food and water, going through the cat door to use the litter box. She has not lost her ability to control her bodily functions but it is only a matter of time before we will have to make a decision on how much she is suffering. It is hard to watch because she has been with us for so long. She is older then our kids.
My grandmother is going through a similar scenario. Grandma is 95. Up until she turned 95 she was mobile (a walker an occasional wheelchair, but able to get around on her own), alert, and able to tend to herself and all of her needs. She was one of the few residents of her, I don't know what the correct terminology would be, "home". She did not have someone giving her meds (she only had one or two to take), she did not have someone helping her move or use the facility or any of those things that we all take for granted until we lose those abilities.
Grandma fell two days after her 95th birthday and broke her hip. She has had surgery on the hip, has had to move to an actually nursing home and had around the clock help and supervision. She has not taken any of this well. My grandmother is a stubborn person but she is not someone who is going to put up an argument with you face to face. Usually she will just not do something if she does not want to do it. That is what has been going on since she left the hospital the first time. She will not eat on a regular basis. She will not cooperate for therapy for her hip. She is wasting away.
Matters got worse just recently. She somehow managed to fall again and fractured her femur, on the same leg as the broken hip, just above her replaced knee. She had surgery last night and is in recovery again today. She is too weary to give anyone grief at the moment.
I get to make a decision about my cat and how long she goes on. My grandmother does not get any choice in whether she continues on or not. She is not crazy, she is not senile, she is simply old and when old happens like this it compounds itself very quickly. With both of these ladies I hope that the rest of their days are better then the ones they have had just recently.
You have to wonder what the master plan is. Why we were designed to break down. Apparently we only have so much time here to do whatever it is we are supposed to do, then for some without notice, and others with agonizingly too much notice, we break down. I went through this with my grand parents about 5 years ago, and now I can see it beginning with my parents. The only solace I get is knowing that the love shared with these people last much longer than we ever do.
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