Last night, he didn't eat much more, and there came a point where he didn't eat at all. He never went to the basement or the kitchen cabinets, in fact, he stayed on the back of the sofa, meatloaf position, only getting up to stretch and turn around to face the other way. Sometimes he would look out the window, other times he would doze off, and lay his head down, sleep for a few minutes, then wake up to shift his head or change position.
He did come up to bed last night as I was getting ready, and he stayed with me most of the night. He purred, and curled up next to my head, and rested a leg/paw in my hair, or on my shoulder, or by my neck. Then he would go lay on my legs, as usual.
I had left some food out for him for the night, and he did eat some of it. When I came downstairs, he was back in meatloaf position on the back of the sofa. He did eat the food I brought him, but would shake his head and paw at his mouth. He did seem to perk up and speak to me when I brought him food.
I'm not completely sure he was ready to go, but at the same time, I was concerned he'd become dehydrated if I couldn't get enough food in him, or that he'd develop hepatic lipidosis. But what it really came down to was, what kind of quality of life is it to just stay on the back of the sofa, trying to get comfortable? To be hungry but be uncomfortable when eating? To keep scratching and drawing blood because the tumor was so uncomfortable?
I called the vet this morning, and took him in. I had them weigh him, and he'd lost 1/2 pound since he was there on 3/23 to get the sutures removed (he weighed 13.12 then). The vet said that the area where they did the biopsy was becoming necrotic, meaning the tumor was outgrowing it's blood supply, so the blood cells die and the area can become infected.
They sedated him (he growled a little at the vet when she did that), and I kept talking to him and petting him during all of it. He left quickly and peacefully, with his Mommy petting him and telling him she loved him. He left at around 11:47am.
I pray it was the right time to let him go, but just I couldn't see making him go through another day like that.
I miss my baby so much.
P.S. This is a link to his page on ibdkitties.net. While he was never diagnosed with IBD, the owner of the blog wanted to include him anyway, because of his issues with kibble. I need to update it, but this is the latest:
http://ibdkitties.net/PookieH.htmlAnd this is his profile on Catster, which I just updated:
http://www.catster.com/cats/1004706