On average domestic felines have a lifespan ranging from twelve to eighteen years, so at fifteen years old Princess is well into her senior years. Considering that, up until purchasing our home and moving out of the apartment, she has been a strictly indoor cat (we tried to take her to the park once and she was not happy about it) we have always been a little lax with her vet appointments. We tried to mainly keep up with her rabies booster shots (just in case) but otherwise never had any type of routine visits. Realizing that she does occasionally go out into the backyard with us know, and that we have been at the new house for just about two years now (man the time flies!!), and that Princess had not been to the vet in at least that long, we decided that it was time for her to have an appointment. Now, Princess has never been fond of car rides, not when she was a kitten in a crate, and not since she has gotten older and allowed to just be on a leash. Thankfully we have a veterinary office about a mile from the new house, and they were accepting new patients (not that this pleased Princess any more or less though), so we made her an appointment for today. Knowing this appointment was upcoming I was able to contact her old veterinary office and have them send me a copy of her complete records from all of her past visits, not that there were many mind you, and bring those notes with us to provide to the new doctor. At a minimum we knew she was going to be due for her rabies booster, but as it turns out we were in for much more. Princess has always been a sleek cat, never weighing in at more than eight pounds, so when she weighed in at under seven we were a little surprised. She has always self-regulated her eating, as she always has dry food down and we give her a quarter of a can of wet food four nights a week. She eats whenever she wants and when the food starts to get low we are always sure to refill it. We explained all of this to the doctor, along with the fact that she doesn’t seem to act out of the ordinary and that for a cat her age she is still very active, prone to running through the house for no apparent reason and still playing with her toys when she feels like it. Considering all of this information, along with her lower than desired weight, we decided to run some blood tests, the first that Princess has ever had, (to which I apologized profusely to her for when she was returned to me. Yes I apologized to my cat, deal with it!) and the results determined that  she has a hyperactive thyroid! The doctor says this is something that tends to develop in older cats and as such she will now be on Methimazole for the rest of her life, which also means that we will need to learn how to give her a pill. Additionally the numbers indicated that one of her liver enzymes were slightly elevated, which can be a side effect of the hyperthyroidism so we will need to recheck that in about a month to see if those fall back into line with her T4 levels. Needless to say this was a stressful event for Princess, not only did she have to endure two car rides, a trip to a strange place with strange people and strange animals around, she also got poked with a couple of needles and will have to be taking pills now as a result! But on the bright side we have decided to give her canned food more often, because she always seems to enjoy it, in an added attempt to help her put on some more weight. Of course the downside is that she will now be having more frequent veterinary appointments in order to track the progress, luckily I don’t have to explain that to her so she won’t have any preparation anxiety!

Today is a special day, an anniversary if you will. Ten years ago today Tiffany and I were driving out in Dearborn on our way to Fairlane Town Center when we drove past Vet Select and noticed they had a sign saying they had kittens for adoption. We had been talking about getting a pet but hadn’t really made any decisions yet, so we decided that if they were still open when we were done at the mall that we would stop in on our way home. Much to our surprise, as we drove past hours later, they were still open; so true to our plan we went in. As it turned out they had only one kitten left; an approximately six week old female tortie. She was the runt of her litter (born stray in a woman’s yard who brought them all in to Vet Select) and the last one left, but she looked so cute and lonely in her cage so we asked to see her. They brought her out and set her on the counter next to us. She was tiny with very large eyes and she immediately came over and started to nuzzle up against us and meow. When Tiffany looked up at me I knew I wasn’t leaving without this kitten. I told the staff we would take her, but I needed to go next door to Pet Supplies Plus and get some items first, because we had nothing for a cat. We filled out all the necessary paperwork and paid her adoption fee, then we decided on a name. Tiffany originally wanted to call her Mischief, but I suggested Princess, and that is what we settled on.  They said they would get Princess ready, they needed to take her stitches out as she had already been spayed and determine what shots she still needed, and when we got back with all her new supplies (food, water and food dishes, toys, collar, leash and carrying crate) we were all set to go home with our new addition. Once we got in the car we immediately found out that she was not a fan of car rides as she cried the entire drive home. However once we got home and in the house she was fine. We kept her secluded to a single room for the first few days, and once we opened the door to her room so she could explore the rest of the apartment the first place she ran to was behind the toilet. To this day that is one of the first places she runs to when she is frightened. Over the years a lot of things have changed, but threw it all Princess has been with me; my constant companion. Melissa tends to say that she is more like my dog than a cat because Princess will, more often than not, come when I call her and sit by me. In fact she has a way of sitting next to me and glaring at Melissa sometimes, or perching herself on the arm of the couch next to me like a gargoyle, so Melissa says she is my little guard cat. I know they say that a dog is man’s best friend, but I’ve never had a pet quit like Princess and I am not sure what I would do with out her.