{"id":527,"date":"2015-09-17T22:56:07","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T22:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/?p=527"},"modified":"2015-09-17T22:56:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T22:56:07","slug":"and-then-one-day-he-greeted-me-at-the-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/17\/and-then-one-day-he-greeted-me-at-the-door\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8230; and then one day he greeted me at the door"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After weeks of watching Claude dissolve from a beefy, affectionate, confident cat to a hiding, distant, skeletal version of himself, the downward spiral stopped abruptly 10 days ago. No one (including his wonderful vets) are really sure why. But on Sunday the 6th when I came home from running errands, he was there at the door like he always used to be, meowing his indignation loudly, face upturned with fire in his eyes, demanding treats.<\/p>\n<p>When I dropped the groceries and fell to my knees to pick him up and hug him, he stared at me with eyes that seemed to say, <em>what? did you think I was giving up without a fight?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Since then, he&#8217;s been on a seemingly magic cocktail of subcutaneous fluids and a morning pinch of anti-nausea pill. And where he has not gained weight &#8211; he still will only eat treats and a few licks of canned food &#8211; he has not lost any more. Which means I won&#8217;t be losing him to starvation or fatty liver disease before the cancer has its chance to get in the ring with him.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;ll never be like the Claude of old, but the New Claude no longer looks miserable. He purrs and blinks and even bites &#8211; yes, Claude was a notorious nipper. (<em>Pet me! Pet me! Pet me! Oh, that was three seconds too long..<\/em>. &lt;CHOMP&gt;)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/FullSizeRender1.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-528\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/FullSizeRender1.jpg?resize=300%2C272&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"FullSizeRender\" width=\"300\" height=\"272\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/FullSizeRender1.jpg?resize=300%2C272&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/FullSizeRender1.jpg?w=965&amp;ssl=1 965w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Faced with the difficult decision of whether to put him on chemotherapy in an attempt to prolong his life, I&#8217;ve decided against it. After almost losing him to the chemo that he took for just two weeks, I can&#8217;t fathom spending even one more day of his few remaining, watching him suffer and hide. \u00a0So I&#8217;ll give him the best life I can, with shameless amounts of treats and cuddles, for as long as he has. I get the sense it&#8217;s what he wants.<\/p>\n<p>St. Francis, much gratitude for this respite from the pain of loss. I aspire to be as brave as this boy, who knows only the present and doesn&#8217;t fear the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After weeks of watching Claude dissolve from a beefy, affectionate, confident cat to a hiding, distant, skeletal version of himself, the downward spiral stopped abruptly 10 days ago. No one (including his wonderful vets) are really sure why. But on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/17\/and-then-one-day-he-greeted-me-at-the-door\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeganahl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}