It all started about three weeks ago with Oscar not really wanting to eat. Oscar had always loved people food, especially milk and tuna, so it was very obvious when he would not give those items a second glance, that something was wrong. When his breathing started to get strained, we decided to take him into the vet.
Dr Moss is an amazing vet that absolutely loves animals, including Oscar. The first time he saw Oscar, he couldn't get over how big he was. He had fun walking around his office showing all the nurses the size of Oscar!
He looked Oscar over, took some blood and it was decided to try some medicine to clear up oscar's breathing problems. This was on a Thursday, by Monday it was much worse and even though we had an appointment to take Oscar back in on wed, Dr Moss said to bring him back in that day.
This time we decided to flush out Oscars nose and take an x-ray of his head. The flush got out bits of a bug that Oscar apparently snorted while trying to eat it. We all thought this was great news and hoped Oscar would improve. Three days later, Dave was in his office when Oscar came wobbling in to see him. Oscar cried to get his attention to let him know something was wrong. One look at Oscar and we immediately got concerned. He couldn't walk in a straight line, his eyes were not responding and he wouldn't purr. This is a cat that Dave can get to purr just by talking to him, so it is very out of the norm for him to not respond to David. It was so bad we didn't think he would make it through the night.
It was a horrible night, not knowing when he would breath his last breath. For awhile there, he went off to hide. We assumed he was finding a place to die. But to our surprise, when I got up the next day to go to work, there was Oscar waiting for me. He looked horrible and far from normal. I ended up leaving work early that day to take him back to the vet.
It was heart wrenching to hear the vet say that he thought Oscar had brain cancer and that it was pushing up against his brain, making him act brain dead. That would explain Oscar almost walking off the bed (he would have it we had not caught him), as if he didn't know where it ended or Oscar going to stand with his head pressed up against the wall or the very fast decent Oscar's health had had. But the truly hard part was hearing the vet say that it would be more humane to put Oscar to sleep.
Dave and I knew Oscar would not last long, but having it end that much sooner, was very difficult to face. Dave was due back home that night, so we decided to wait until the next morning; Once again, we didn't think Oscar would make it through the night. He was so miserable and would hardly move at all. When he would move, he would just randomly stand up and stay that way until we helped him back down.
Will insisted on getting a picture of both the cats before I took him to school, bawling. Dave and I were with Oscar until the end. It's surprising how fast it goes once they put the needle in him. It was very sad to watch David have to say goodbye to his companion and friend. Our vet is a convert to the church and we had a really good talk with him about what we think will happen to Oscar. We believe we will see him again and that makes this passing a little easier to bear.
We love you Oscar. You are very much missed and longed for.
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