My Little Grandma

Our little Nutsy grandma is not doing so well. Well, she's actually doing okay at the moment but we know that she's declining. She's slowly lost weight over the last year. But now that's changed to a rapid weight loss, and we've eliminated the easily treatable things it could be. The possible explanations we're left with aren't good, and she's so elderly and fragile that treatment would likely be more cruel than helpful. So we've decided to simply make the rest of her life as joyful and comfortable as possible, at least until it becomes apparent that we have to make a hard decision for her. For now, she's still enjoying lots of things. She eats voraciously, still likes pets and eye-rubs, still likes sleeping on our laps or on the couch with us, still hisses spunkily at the Charlie, still likes stretching and running over for treats, and even still plays with a string occasionally or tries to eat the cords on the blinds. After her check-up on Monday where we learned she'd lost 18% of her body weight in just a few months, we were feeling very grave and were ready to say our goodbyes very soon to spare her quality of life. But it is/was so hard to commit to pulling the trigger. I talked to Nutsy Monday night and asked her to let us know if she was ready to go or not. She responded on Tuesday by doing all of the happy things listed above with a renewed vigor. So after a long talk with our vet today we've decided to focus on palliative care now, and enjoy the time we have left with a happy Nutsy - whether that be days or weeks or months. I love my little grandma and it will be so hard to let her go ... but I will when the time comes. And then her and Trigger can snuggle again.