This afternoon we had an appointment at the vet for the cats. It had been six months since their last one and at their ages, the vet likes to do bloodwork and keep an eye on things. I wasn’t sure how to fit two pet carriers on the bike. Which turned out to be a non issue since I didn’t have two small ones. So, by swiftness and sneakiness, I managed to get both Lientje and Moortje in the same carrier. This is definitely an accomplishment because usually as soon as they see the carrier, they hightail it for a neighboring country that doesn’t have an extradition treaty!

With the help of the bungee cords that I always have on the bike, I strapped the carrier to the top of the basket and we made our way to the vet. I figured that if they were going to be traumatized, I would at least try to do it as fast as possible. Sort of like jumping in cold water instead of going inch by inch. Since they don’t ever go out on the street side of the house, the trip made them very unhappy with all the noise and activity.

During today’s exam, it turns out that the kidney food has not turned back the progress. For either of them. This means we’re taking the step to medication and also that they can make a guestimate on life expectancy assuming nothing else goes wrong but the kidneys. Not the best news ever. Moortje is more advanced than Lientje. Tonight I had to give them their first doses. It is liquid medicine so I have to get it into their mouths. They need the kidney medicine once a day, the kidney supplement twice a day. And Moortje has super elevated blood pressure – around 240 so that means he also gets medicine for that once a day. I think I am going to learn to get pretty good at this. And certainly the next time the house sitter is here, she will be earning her daily rate.

Wednesday they both go in for an ECG since both of them have murmurs in their hearts. Now with the kidney thing, it becomes more of a concern. So, not only do I have a little epileptic (George) but now I have two cardio renal patients. I know to be grateful that there are things that can be done and for the advanced ages of the cats, they have not had problems until now. This is pretty good considering Lientje is 16 and Moortje is around 20. Although it is only a guess, if nothing else fails, Moortje has another 679 days and Lientje 1129. I am not sure how they figure that out but there is some sort of formula involved.

I also asked the difficult question about cremation. When the time comes, I don’t want them to be mixed with a lot of other pets, I want it to be just them. I wasn’t sure how they handled that here so I asked. In return I got a brochure from the animal crematorium. I haven’t yet read it but I have it. After reading the notebook that hospice left when my mom started in their care, I am more careful about reading things. Turns out I wasn’t supposed to read the hospice notebook alone or in advance. However, they forgot to tell me that. I think I did some damage to myself by reading it. So, now I have the brochure from the crematorium in my desk for when the times comes.

I looked at another open house tonight. I am going to take a step back after this week – I have seven this week. I am going a little crazy, worrying about missing something. And then looking at too many things. And none of them are quite right, which then makes me even more anxious.

Hah, I was thinking the other day that I had successfully come off the anti depressants and not noticed a difference. Maybe that was a bit of wishful thinking. Either way, it is not enough to make me go back on.

Henry got in trouble today for running away from Kate, their park ranger. Apparently, he got it into his head to walk back to where the people were instead of with Kate and George. Some older ladies were very upset about it and gave Kate a stern Amsterdam talking to. Kate is made of pretty stern stuff herself and gave it right back. Henry really is becoming a little troublemaker. I never thought I would say that about him!