The Last of the Breed

 Sad news, sad news.  I phoned the animal hospital to see how Silverstreak was doing, and the veterinarian solemnly told me that she had died during the night.  "She was improving," the vet said, "and then suddenly she suffered complete kidney breakdown, and all we could do was make her comfortable."  That kidney infection is the same thing that killed little Silverdot.  I wasn't there to pet her one last time.  

They're keeping the body until I can come pick it up today.  I'll bring her home and bury her beside Silverdot, under the tangerine tree.  Henry has already dug a little grave there.

Rasty, who doesn't trust doctors, is already grumbling about "Another $600 for a dead cat", but I know he misses her too.  To all of you who chipped in to pay the vet bills, I'm more grateful than I can say.  Thank you also for the information that it is possible to get pet healthcare insurance;  I'll be exploring that too.

In any case, I'll make an appointment to get Silversun a check-up.  He looks healthy, but I want to be sure.  He's now the last of the bloodline that I've been breeding for all these years, and I can't lose him.  He's wandering around the house, searching and wailing, looking for his lost companions and begging to be petted.  Not trusting commercial cat-food right now, I boiled some chicken gizzards for his dinner -- but he isn't interested.  He wasn't even interested in my dinner, which was breaded fish-sticks.  

I have to get another queen-cat, preferably a kitten old enough for solid food.  I was planning on getting one anyway -- it's time for an out-cross after two generations of breeding close -- but now it's vital.  The problem will be finding one that's close enough in body-type: a rangy Siamese-like build, big skull, and five functioning toes.  I'll test for intelligence as best I can.  

Probably the best place to look will be the local animal shelter.  Over the past ten years that we've lived here, my assorted tomcats have spread their genes all over the neighborhood cat population;  certainly Silversun has cousins that have wound up in the shelter whom I can rescue.  I need a short-haired female, with a big skull and functioning thumbs, old enough to eat solid food but too young to have been spayed, and visibly intelligent.  And, hopefully, with a resistance to whatever is causing that damned kidney infection.  

I went through this once before, decades ago, when Feline Viral Leukemia burned through my cattery -- and all the neighborhood cats besides.  When it was over, I had just two cats left;  fortunately they were a tom and a queen, and both of them were immune to FVL.  This time there's only one left.  He's got to survive.

--Leslie <;)))><