It’s been a while since I wrote a post focused on an individual animal, as I had started this whole blog thing off doing. On Saturday, my tech and I were talking about this cat. Next month is 3 years since he came into my life, and last month was 2 years since he left it. Obviously, Barnacle wasn’t part of the family for long, but he still had a nice sized impact on me. I took him in not knowing if I’d have him for days, weeks, months or years. If I hadn’t brought him home, he might’ve only had days, so ten months, living indoors, being warm, loved and having his multiple medical conditions treated/managed seems like it worked out well for him. I believe he was glad for the opportunity.
I met Barnacle in mid-October 2019 when a pair of neighbors, one a current client and the other a former client, brought him in for a “stray cat” exam. They’d been feeding him for “a while,” but as the weather was beginning to turn, they found themselves wondering if the kindest thing might be to euthanize him. It was clear that he wasn’t a healthy cat, and neither of them was prepared to take whatever issues he might have on financially. The current client already had several active pets in our system, and former client had lost her last cat a couple of years prior far too young to lymphoma. She had told me at that time that she just couldn’t do it again.
When we met, Barnacle was little more than skin and bones, covered in flea dirt, had a giant mat on his right hip, severe dental tartar with some blood-tinged saliva noted on his exam. At one time, you could tell, he was a majestic beast. He was also just a nice cat. Once upon a time, he was someone’s cat. There’s no way to know what happened along the way, but he had obviously fallen on some hard times. I told the pair that he definitely had some things going on, but they were most likely treatble things. I didn’t think that he needed to be euthanized that very day. They elected to vaccinate him and brought him back to their neighborhood for the time being.
I’ve said it here multiple times that I am not a cat person. Justin is not a cat person. We were not looking for a cat, or any other pet, in October of 2019. If I was looking for a cat, nothing about this one would have been on my checklist: I wouldn’t have intentionally gone and picked out a cat with (un)known issues, I wouldn’t have wanted a medium to long-haired or light-colored cat, and I would not have wanted a male (because I just don’t want to deal with a blocked cat). To this day, I do not know what about Barnacle it was, but I just looked in that cat’s eyes and gave him a little bit of love and couldn’t just send him back outdoors to continue wasting away until he potentially froze to death or one of his ailments got the best of him. (No one I work with knows what came over me either because it is not something I am known to do.) I sent his pathetic photo to Justin and half jokingly asked if I could have him. I fully expected him to say, “Absolutely not!”
Instead, he asked if he was a nice man. When I said that he was, Justin agreed that he could move in. My practice manager called the client and let her know that someone on staff was interested in giving the cat a home. (She wasn’t supposed to know it was me, but one of my techs had a big mouth and told her when she dropped him off at the hospital in a torrential rainstorm and popped the tire on her car pulling into our parking lot. I’ve seen her a few times with other pets since then, and she’s never asked though.) I let Justin choose his name, since he allowed him to become part of our family. He chose Barnacle because 1. he was a crusty critter and 2. he was a real ladies man, like Barney Stinson from “How I Met Your Mother.”
Two of my techs gently bathed him to get rid of as much flea dirt as possible. I got him started on a flea preventative. We sent out bloodwork, which diagnosed his hyperthyroidism and indicated that he had heart disease. I got him an echocardiogram, confirming that heart disease. He started medications for both problems. On recheck blood work, his thryoid disease was controlled, but as sometimes happens in that situation, his kidney disease became apparant. He started a kidney diet. In January of 2020, Barnacle had an abdominal ultrasound because Justin noted he might be straining in his litterbox; I was told he had an amazingly normal GI tract. No cause for straining was identified.
Barney tolerated Rookie and Magic (especially Magic) perfectly from day one. He gained weight (although stayed very thin and muscle-wasted throughout his time with us). He wandered freely about the house, choosing comfortable sleeping spots, including sometimes our bed. He stayed with my mom over Christmas while we visited Justin’s family. He got all of the love from my tech that pet sit everyone when we went to Ireland in March 2020. At some point, he developed sores on his hocks because he had no cushion over them and arthritis, so he wore newborn socks over them with the toes cut off.
About June of 2020, his kidney disease was worsening, and he became anemic. He started getting subcutaneous fluids regularly and injections to stimulate his bone marrow to make more red blood cells. Barnacle never complained about any of it. During all of his transitions and despite his health, he only didn’t use his litterbox one time, near the beginning of his time with us, when he peed on a dog bed. I washed it, put it away, and it never happened again. Thankfully, he never had any diarrhea because cat diarrhea is a nightmare.
As summer progressed, Barney’s appetite started to go downhill. I bought him an array of stinky canned food options, most of which he never ended up eating. His breath became unbearable in his last few days, and I noted some oral ulcers. Because all he wanted to do was sleep and snuggle, you couldn’t help but notice those changes. I was sure we had reached the end of the road, but I like information and wanted to check his blood work once more.
I brought him into work on a Monday morning and sat, cuddling him in dental land with one of our other doctors and the dental techs while waiting for his blood work to run. When it finished, we couldn’t believe that he was still walking around the dental area with how high his kidney values were. The results solidified my decision for him. The techs placed an IV catheter for him, I collected the necessary drugs, and we went home to enjoy the afternoon.
He slept in the sun in our three season room for most of his remaining time. I’d occasionally go in and give him some head rubs. When Justin finished his work day, he also same out there to say his good-byes. Barney left the world in a comfortable fleece bed in a beam of late afternoon sunshine. I’m so grateful that even though our time together was short, it was a good time. I’m glad that we could provide an old man a comfortable place to land and live out his months in safety, warmth and love.
Every now and then, I think that I miss having a cat around. Really, when I think about it, it’s Rickie specifically that I miss. Barney was great, in his way, but he was not her, nor was he a replacement for her. (No animal can replace another.) Someday, I’m sure, another Barnacle, a cat that speaks to me in a way I can’t identify, will come around, and when that happens, they’ll be welcomed with a cozy bed, a bowl of food and all of the attention they want. Until then, we’ll fondly remember the cats that came before them and appreciate the time we had with them, whether 18+ years or 10 months (or something in between for the cats before Rickie in my life).
“Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.” ~ James Herriot
