Sometimes life really does suck

Lauren and I both noticed late Saturday night that our senior cat, Max, was coughing. My cats puke, it seems, on a daily basis so I didn't give it a second thought until I noticed on Sunday that he was missing. I found him sleeping under my bed. By sight alone you could tell something was wrong. He was listless, wouldn't eat or drink, and could barely walk. It was bad. He passed away on Monday evening. He is the first pet we've lost as a family. A mistake w paperwork at the vet has left us without Max's ashes. I have respect for the vet as she was genuinely mortified at this unimaginable mistake and I am sure the call was the hardest she's ever had to make. Unfortunately she wasn't here consoling a grieving 14 yo who felt it was like losing him all over again. What's done is done and there is nothing we can do to change it. I love that girl so much and I just want her to be happy and confident in her future. It's times like this that death is so real for her. The finality of it is sometimes unbearable to imagine. We are going to make a memorial with a cross, some pictures and his bell collar. She needs some closure and I think this will help. No one ever thinks when adopting a pet that someday they will die. It really does suck.

Lauren had been having minor nose bleeds since Friday with an increase in frequency by Sunday. Standard protocol would be to go to the ER if platelets are low. I tried some different things here like cold compresses and aquaphor but nothing was helping. After discovering Max and realizing the severity, tears started to flow which made the nose bleeds heavier and almost uncontrollable. This was the first time ever that she had one that I or she could not control or stop so I knew a trip to the hospital was inevitable and I knew it couldn't wait til Monday. So off we went and lucky we did. After running a CBC we found out her platelets had dropped to 7 and her WBC was 1. All bad. We chose for an admit because it would be a couple of hours before the blood bank would get the platelets and being in the ER was not comfy. The first bag of platelets were hung, at 5:30am. Really not ok that it took so long but honestly its not worth going into. After one gentle and one not so gentle reminder, it was done. She was promptly discharged at 10:30am and we went straight to her appointment to be fitted for AFOs (ankle foot orthotics). After being up for 24 hours, we came home to a very sick cat and well, you already know what happened from there.

For the most part, I try to be supportive, cheerful and uplifting because the alternative isn't really me. But sometimes I just wanna crawl in a hole and cry because sometimes, life really does suck.

Rest in Paradise Max. Wait for us on the Rainbow Bridge (thanks Jen <3)