The Passing of My Rose Garden Companion, Rahjah

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The lovely weather has finally arrived! After a cooler and rainier May than usual, the warmth arrived this morning. The lawn is thick and lush and an amazing emerald green. Most of the blooming trees and lilacs have finished at this point. However, the foliage on the trees is verdant and the branches are full of songbirds and their nests. The Baltimore Oriole has returned and so have the grey Catbirds with their sooty caps. The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak and his wife are daily visitors at the bird feeder. Rainfall is a tad above normal. I’m hoping we may be seeing an ending to our many months of drought here in North Central Connecticut. The foliage on the roses is succulent and rich, and there are rosebuds everywhere.

It seems that when things seem to be rolling along really well, all of a sudden a cosmic joker jumps into the mix to mess things up. My beloved cat, Rahjah, is sick. Two weeks ago, we brought him to our vet because he was listless and had stopped eating and drinking. When I picked him up to put him in the kitty carrier he felt just like a rag doll. When we went into the vet’s office he just lay on the stainless steel examining table and submitted to everything that was happening. He needed bloodwork and hydration, and Dr. Pennington wanted to keep him overnight.

The next day, Dr. P called and said that Raj was suffering from kidney failure. His kidney enzymes were sky high. He asked if he could keep him for three more nights to see if they could increase the fluids in his system to flush out the toxins that the kidneys were no longer able to filter out. The plan was to do more bloodwork on Friday to check his kidney stats again and then to make a decision about Raj’s future on Saturday morning.

We have two cats in our household. Mistletoes (Missie) just turned 10 and Rahjah will be 10 on August 23 which is our 31st wedding anniversary. Missie is vocal and a mighty huntress. We live in an old house and mice just love getting into old houses, especially in the winter. She catches every one while Raj watches on. Outside in Spring, Summer, and Fall, she chases everything that moves. Raj just likes to come out to the gardens with me and will chase a chipmunk once in awhile. They have very different personalities and Missie gravitates toward Bob while Raj is my pretty constant companion when I’m home.

We visited Rahjah for at least an hour a day while he was in the hospital. By Thursday, his eyes were bright and he seemed much better to me. We had to wait, though, for the results of the next day’s blood test to see if there was some measurable improvement. By the time Saturday morning arrived, Dr. Pennington called and said there was, indeed, much improvement. He told us to come down to his office and pick up our boy.

The only thing was that I would have to learn how to hydrate him with IV fluids under the skin on his back. I wasn’t sure I would be able to do this. My friend Beth sent me some YouTube videos and my friend Kasey (who is a vet tech) coached me by showing me what to do on Missie’s back (Raj was home but hiding). Long story short, we have set up a system. I hold Raj after inserting the needle under his skin and Bob runs the fluids and lets me know when Raj has had his measured amount.

Last week, my buddy really wanted to come outside. Invariably during the summer if I am out in the yard, Bob will come out on the screened-in porch and say, ‘Somebody is missing you and crying, can I let him out?’ We decided we would wait till after Raj’s vet check on Saturday. I asked Dr. P if I could use Frontline and let him out in the garden with me and he said, ‘I don’t have a problem with that!’ They drew more blood to check his levels again and Dr. Pennington promised to call me with the results on Monday.

Yesterday, Raj just did not want to submit to his daily hydration, so I put some Frontline on him instead and invited him out to the rose gardens in the back yard. He is just an amazing kitty, with his long hair he seems to float down the hill with his coat rippling! I had some watering to do so he came over and rubbed me all over with his chin, chased a chipmunk for a while, ate a little grass and stretched out on the cool, damp mulch. He got himself tired enough that when we came inside he just snuggled up in my arms on his fluffy blanket while we did what needed to be done. Dr. P called last night to let me know that his numbers were much better and to keep up the good work! I almost cried…

Rahjah’s kidneys will never work again; there are no kidney transplants for kitties. To encourage his water intake, I bought him a kitty drinking fountain, which he loves! He’s always liked drinking out of the bathroom faucet but he’s not as strong as he once was and can’t seem to jump up that high any more. This fountain sounds just like the faucet and he laps at it all day. Between that and the IV hydration, we can keep him comfortable at least for the time being. He probably won’t live as long as I would like him to. I plan to enjoy all the time we have left.

Rahjah has always been such a source of joy to me. I just love it when he runs to me in the gardens out back! I love our Rahjah, and you know what, I think he loves me, too.

Meet Marci Martin

Marci Martin has loved roses for as long as she can remember. From the time she was a little girl, she was fascinated with how…

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