Busy Week & Farewell to Cosmo

It's been a crazy week. I was in Phoenix earlier this week for a work event and flew home Wed night. I had to rush to get ready for another craft fair that started today (Friday). Kinda slammed!

The show started today and runs through tomorrow. I'll post pics later in the weekend. I am not sure why, but everyone was buying today. We had a good crowd. I wonder if the election has some people feeling more confident about change? Who knows. Maybe it's just getting close to Christmas.

We had to put our kitty Cosmo down tonight. He was diagnosed with feline infectious peritonitis almost two months ago. The vet said he might last about two months and she was right. We had been giving him meds to keep him comfortable but about a week ago he just quit eating. He would not even eat his treats anymore. And that was what he loved most in the world was treats. My husband took him into the vet's office and I sat in the truck and cried. Such a baby. They said the inside of his ears were yellow which meant his liver was failing. The disease (FIP) attacks their organs and is always fatal. My husband came out with a Nike shoe box in his arms. Cosmo's breath these past few months had been wretched so I gave my husband a breath mint to slip in the box before he buried him. Just me being silly. We kept his collar and tags to hang in our hallway with those from Smokey and Sassy. We've had a bad luck streak with cats in the past 5 years or so. I hope the next one will be healthy. I wonder if our older cat Tucker will miss him.

I have another work trip coming up which will take me out of the country. But I hope to look for a new kitty when I return home.

Now I have to put on a happy face for the show tomorrow.

Our Beloved Kitty Cosmo

Admiring his fine self in my makeup mirror.



Watching the koi in our pond from his favorite viewing spot. You will always find him there. He hangs out on the bottom rung of the chair or he'll sit in the window if it's open.




His "working the pole" routine in the spare bedroom. He loves to squirm around and hang onto the bed frame. I am powerless over his cuteness. And he knows this.




Here are a few pictures of our most special kitty Cosmo. Cosmo is about a year old and was named for Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld. He doesn't enter a room like Kramer. We just liked the name.

We adopted Cosmo last November from a local rescue organization. They didn't know a lot about his past, but he showed up at the pet store on a dog social night. Not sure if that was good timing or bad, but he was noticed for sure. They managed to catch him the second time he came around. We adopted him as soon as we met him, even though his eyes were watery, he had ear mites and he sneezed a lot. The vet put him on antibiotics and had eye ointment for him and he eventually got better.

He has always been submissive to our older cat Tucker and they are just now to the point where they get along. Let's just say Tucker tolerates him now.

Cosmo's favorite thing to do is sit by the window and watch the fish in our koi pond. He loves it when we open the window for him. His other favorite pastime is our nightly bedtime treat ritual. All I need to do is bang the metal handle on my nightstand drawer and he comes flying into the room, across the bed and in position to get his three treats.

We recently noticed that he was acting odd. Laying on the dryer for several days in a row and having difficulty breathing. He also failed to show up for his bedtime treats which was a big red flag for us. We got an appointment at the vet last Thursday and the news wasn't good. He was running a fever and the xray confirmed his body was filled with fluid, so much that his lungs had nowhere to expand.

The vet told us it could be a couple things, but a xray would tell us more. She seemed apprehensive when she showed us a "normal" xray and then showed us Cosmo's xray. The diagnosis was one we feared. He has FIP which is feline infectious peritonitis. I had never heard of this until Thursday night. It is a disease with no cure which is always fatal. We were devastated. It seems this disease begins with a common coronavirus which just about all cats are exposed to at some point in their lives. However, in some cats (mostly kittens with weak immune systems or very old cats) the virus mutates in their system, within their cells. By the time you see the symptoms they don't have much time left. The vet tells us he has weeks or maybe months. His chest will continue to fill with fluid (even though we just put him on a water pill) and it will cause more respiratory issues. Basically he won't be able to breathe. The vet said not to let it go too far as we don't want to see him suffer.

He isn't eating much now and hides a lot. Our cats have not had canned cat food, they just eat dry. So I have tried to entice him with tiny pieces of cooked chicken breast, banana pudding, anything I have on hand to pique his interest. I am told he needs protein and we could even try baby food, (like the meat versions) in order to get him some extra protein. I am babying him and giving him all the love I can for the time that he has left with us. It breaks my heart to lose another one. Our two previous kitties had diabetes, cancer and arthritis.

Our vet said she rescued two kittens herself, that both seemed a little sickly at the time, they were diagnosed with FIP and she had to put both of them down after only having them two months. It made me feel slightly better when she reminded me that Cosmo has had a wonderful year of life with us, verus being out on the streets as a stray. I just need to keep telling myself that.