You people are the coolest!
Unless you own and raise pets you will never truly appreciate how much they can enrich your life.
Last year, when I was very very sick with my ulcer, colitis and irritable bowel, my cat (Samson) was there to make me laugh and bring me some joy during this very terribe time in my personal health. Soon afterwards, around the time of his birthday something terribly wrong happened.
Since he was about 4 months old he had been fixed. One day I noticed there was nothing in the litter box. I mean nothing. I was getting worried. He was acting completely different whining and moving with great difficulty. At one point he went upstairs and it looked to me like he was looking for a place to die.
I brought him downstairs, the whole time he was hissing and freaking out when I picked him up, I noticed his bladder area was exceptionally bulging. I decided then and there to take him to emergency.
Turns out that he had crystals. A catheter procedure ($200 later) and I brought him home. It happened again two days later. Finally, I brought him to a competent vet that kept him at his clinic for 3 days. All in all, it cost me $1200 over the course of a 10 day period. Turns out, all the people food we had been feeding him since he was a kitten was not so good for him after all.
That week was the hardest week I'd experienced in my life since my kid brother died from cancer more than 15 years ago.
Once the vet stabilized him and told me he must go on a veterinarian diet PERMANENTLY, the rest was easy. Since we modified his diet to the prescribed cat food only (and no people food!) Samson has not had any problems since with urination and his weight has stabilized as well. Today, Samson (who also answers to "doggie boy") is as healthy as he's gonna get. He loved his prescription food right from the get go and there is always something there in the litter box too!
After reading a number of your posts, I realize that one day Samson will go too and just that thought alone breaks my heart.
To those of you that have had to put down your little loved ones, my heart does indeed go out to you.
As Cleo has stated, may another little bundle of joy bring you as much happiness as its predecessor. Take plenty of pictures and enjoy them while you have them. Our pets enrich our lives.
Bill, take heart in the fact that 17 years is a good age for a cat to reach. A lot can be said for the way you've raised your cat and its a testament to how responsible and caring you have been to him. My vet has a cat that has outlived two families. He's 21.