I’m not sure of the exact percentage, but I know there’s quite a few of us who were married and did not have any kids. For Mario and I, it was a conscious choice. Honestly, for me, it was a choice that happened very early in my life. I just could never see myself as a mom to another human. As I grew older and friends of mine who said they would never have children changed their minds. Some also talked about a, “ticking biological clock”, which I never understood because I never experienced anything like that.

I have zero regrets about not having children. It’s not that I hate children. It’s not that I’m super selfish. It just wasn’t meant to be in this life and I happened to have a spouse who was on the same page (I’m sure a LOT of breakups happen because couples are NOT on the same page on that topic!).

My joke that I always tell folks who ask if I have any children is, “I chose cats over kids”.

I know many childless couples choose pets and those pets are the recipients of all the love, attention, care and everything else.

I think caring for pets is sometimes even more difficult that human children because (1) pets can not talk and (2) if we’re lucky, we get on average maybe 15 years with them and then, they’re gone. So we willfully sign up and love our pets unconditionally knowing we’ll only get what amounts to a short amount of time with them. I mean, imagine as a human parent, if you knew your child would die in like 15 years!

I say all this to preface how my week has gone …

Without going into a long, drawn-out story, my kitty Freya is currently in critical condition as I write this. What we (the regular, mobile vet and myself) originally thought was a simple infection that would respond to regular antibiotics was anything but. And to make matters worse, there was a critical 5 day delay before having a better diagnosis. Think along the lines of sepsis, but for cats. It is a severe blood infection and one that can be dormant or not show any symptoms until the cat is somehow compromised.

In March, Freya had an odd eye infection where we couldn’t determine the cause. That might have been enough to set everything else in motion, but who knows. Cats are such stoic little beings that can endure unimaginable discomfort before finally letting on that something is definitely not right. I knew that something was not right when she was hiding under the couch in my office, not eating like normal and not interested in playing.

As of Tuesday, she’s now receiving the correct antibiotic infusion for this particular bacteria, but her red blood cell count is as low as it can go without being a death sentence and she’s got a very high fever that comes and goes. Her little body is working overtime to try to produce new blood cells, but it will take awhile. She’s getting a steroid for the fever, B-12 to help support the red blood cell production, and of course the IV antibiotics.

The bill is already $$$ and I have no idea how much more it will be, but that is the least of my worries. If you’re a parent to a human, imagine if you will your child were in critical condition fighting for their life in the hospital. You would be an absolute wreck, mentally, emotionally, physically … and that’s where I’m at, but at the same time, I’m trying to be strong and hold on to the fact that Freya a fighter.

The vet has been giving me a couple updates daily. One of the things they’re watching closely is that red blood cell count. If it dips any lower, I’ll have to rush her an hour away to the ER clinic that can do feline blood transfusions and then hope that she doesn’t experience a reaction to that. Really hoping it doesn’t come to that. Even if her levels went up 1% that would be moving in the right direction.

So yeah, it has not be a fun week by any measure. If everything were normal, I’d be camping right now, but of course I had to cancel that trip. I’m hopeful that maybe next month I can get out for a few days.

Thursday

So the local vet gave me an update in the evening that she was concerned about Freya’s heart rate and breathing rate and really recommended she get the blood transfusion. Calls were made to the ER vet an hour north who could do that and her records were transferred. After a quick dinner, coordinating my neighbor to feed my other two cats in the morning and booking a room for the night near the ER vet, I went to pick up Freya and make the drive north.

Interestingly, I felt there was something “off” to what was going on. Everything about it felt weird, but I was trusting that the right tests were done to determine the infection was the root cause. When I met with the ER vet, he explained that after looking at her, he felt something was off as well. She absolutely needed the transfusion, but she had some other things going on as well, such a little bit of fluid build up around her lungs.

Everyone was really nice at the ER vet and they took me in the back to visit with Freya before I left for the night.

Friday Morning

Around 6:30 A.M. I got a text from the vet with some photos of Freya looking pretty good for all she’s been through and mentioning the doctor would give me a call with an update soon. So I’m just having some breakfast and waiting for the call. I’m hopefully that he got more to the bottom of what really happened with her.

Update: we still don’t know exactly what caused all this but the fluid around the lungs was benign. Her breathing rate is still a little higher, so running more tests. Also running a test on her red blood cell count again. She’ll likely spend another night up here.