MY CAT'S UPDATE AND PROGNOSIS

The growth under my cat, Peaches' left ear is growing steadily and now he has a grape shaped growth on the left side of his neck.  He has been scratching the large growth under his ear and has been shaking his head every once and a while, but he's still eating and using his litter box as usual. 

The large growth has been pulling on his skin so much that it is now pulling on the skin on his left eye a bit.  Along with all of this, I've noticed my cat has been sleeping a lot.  He has made a bed in one of my lower kitchen cabinets.  He knows how to open the cupboard doors, walks in and lays down.  He is completely in the dark and also in a quieter place.  He knows he's never allowed to do that because in this particular cupboard is where my food processor attachments are kept and also he is never allowed on the kitchen counters or in any of my kitchen cabinets.  Under the circumstances, I cleaned out everything from that section of the cabinets, put a king sized sheet folded to the size of that portion of the cabinet and let him come and go, since I'm spoiling him to death...literally!  I couldn't stand to see him scratching at his growth, sleeping soooo much, but still attending to his duties of checking in with me, being a lap cat, at least for a few minutes, in between sleeping a lot in the kitchen cabinet.  Not only that, but I have been crying every time I think of the inevitable, he's on my lap and he looks up at me with those beautiful green eyes watching my tears fall as if to say it's OK mom.  (I'm crying now...time out.)  I tell him a lot I love him, hug and kiss him and scratch, pet and groom him a lot more than I ever did.  He's also loving the amount of soft kitty food and kitty treats I've also been giving him.

So I took him to the vet again yesterday thinking the vet would surgically remove the large growth again along with the grape sized growth.  Wroooong!  The vet said it was cancer and has metastasized to his lymph gland.  The growths are inoperable. 

He asked me if I wanted to give him an injection to make him feel better and would temporarily also make the growths less itchy so he wouldn't scratch at them and also would shrink the growths a bit.  The injection would last about two weeks.  Although the shot was $27, I let him do it.  Who wouldn't want their dying cat feel better and possibly prolong their life?  I asked the vet, between my tears and crying jags, how long he thought my cat had to live and he said two months.  He also added he wouldn't be around for the holidays, which I thought was insensitive and he didn't have to add.

Just now my cat came out of hiding under the kitchen cabinets, went back to his food bowl, ate again, came to check in with me on the couch, I hugged him, told him I loved him and yes, I do believe he is acting a little bit more spunkier today.  He now went back into his cave.  He's got possession of that area and loves it.

I feel much better that I know now what to expect.  I hope, in the back of my mind, that maybe this will be a miracle and the growths will shrink and go away, like Valerie Harper's brain tumor, but know that a 17 year old cat had very little chance of that happening.

My cat has had a very good life with me.  I've given him everything a cat could want or need.  In fact, all of the six animals I've had over 40 years had a very good life with me.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to blow my nose, dry my eyes of tears again and get on with my life and what I have to do today.