The past few weeks have been tumultuous for everyone. The entire month of March has been tumultuous for Nashvillians. I feel dramatic saying that the entire year has been tumultuous for me, so let’s just say that there have been waves. And many of them whitecaps.

This might be my favorite picture of Jake and me. Dean took it one morning in Chicago after we had obtained breakfast from a local coffee shop. If the weather was nice, we’d open the screen and let Jake poke his nose out.

I’ve always tried to look at this kind of thing as a catalyst for positive change. The entire move and the fire showed us the generosity of several friends and how Dean and I worked together under extreme duress. Poor Jake had to deal with leaving the home that he had spent most of his life in and then leaving the new one that we had come to enjoy in a horrible state of panic. Once we were finally settled, he adjusted, but began having puking issues. (More than normal, I have always described him as ‘the most pukey cat I’ve ever had.) We had him checked out at Parker’s Paws (can’t recommend them enough) got some antibiotics and some anti nausea and he was reset and back to normal in a few weeks.

Our most recent move was also difficult for Jake. I began moving things gradually, one car load at a time. We closed fast due to a bidding war, and still had half a month on our lease, so we had the luxury of a little extra time. I was moving carloads every spare minute. As our old place became more and more stripped down, the anniversary of the fire came closer. Work had also finally started on the old, burnt out building and occasionally I would get wafts of campfire smell. I used to like the smell of campfires. Eventually, I just hated staying at the old place.

We did our best to accustom Jake to things gradually. One day, I brought a huge carload of things to unpack, and I brought Jake. I let him roam around the new house while I unpacked things, then at the end of the day, brought him back home. When it was finally decided that we would start staying there, of course, we brought Jake and his things with us.

We had a bed at both locations. The old bed and bed frame were way past needing replacing. (For one, we were on a full that I had had since the very early naughts.) We had ordered a large, new, bed and bed frame to be delivered to the new place. So it was easy to stay at one or the other. We had reserved a moving van and set a date for the ‘big move’ when we would be moving things like the carpet, furniture, heavy stuff, etc. But I got as many of the smaller items as I could.

Jake was not happy when we first moved. He took up residence in our new bed and that’s where he stayed. He would come out to eat and use his litter box, but that was it. Other than that, he hid in the bed. He still purred and loved on us and enjoyed being petted and being fed, but he rarely ventured out of the bed.

I think a lot of people forget that we just had a devastating tornado. Some people didn’t even have shelter or internet and everyone was told to stay at home and do everything online.

Dean and I had heavy work schedules late February and early March. We weren’t able to early vote and we worked out that the only way for us to vote on Super Tuesday would be if we slept at the old place, voted as soon as the polls were open, then I drove him right into work, then went home to take care of Jake and sundries before I went into work. I didn’t like it, but that was the plan. We left Jake in the new place because we felt that moving him more than necessary would only stress him more.

Of course a tornado hit East and North Nashville that night. Our new place was in North Nashville. I woke up to the sirens and once I realized it wasn’t the place burning down again, I tried to figure out what was going on. Eventually, through a client who messaged me to make sure I was okay, I found out that a tornado had hit and where it had hit. Dean and I got up and drove back home. I could not deal with not knowing if our house was still standing and if Jake was okay. The drive was terrifying, there were no streetlights and we saw a lot of devastation, but our house was still standing, and Jake was okay. He was very happy to see us.

We were without power that week, which was stressful for all of us, but in all reality, more for the humans than Jake. Fortunately, power arrived the same day my in-laws did to help us move! Once the furniture and, most importantly, the big, black shag carpet arrived, Jake was in heaven. He rolled on his carpet and galloped around the house making his whooping noises. If you’ve never heard a cat make whooping noises, I wish you could meet Jake. He makes them when he’s happy or showing off. I doubt I can do them justice here, however, I can but try, “brrrowWrrrowWRRROOOOW!!!”

Then, all of the sudden, we were home all day.

Only in sleep will the yarn reveal it’s secrets…

I honestly cannot tell if Jake has really enjoyed us being home, because we can’t exactly nap with him all day like he wants us to. But I think he does enjoy the fact that we’re constantly taking pictures of him and cooing over him. Let’s face it. Other than each other, Jake is our social contact right now. And if we hadn’t been home, we might not have noticed anything was wrong.

If you’ve owned a cat before, you’ll know that they hide things until they get very bad. I often used to think about this during martial arts training. We were taught never to show pain or exhaustion, because your opponent would feed off of that. You are fine until you get out of the ring. Cats are great at martial arts, as everyone knows.

Jake had a bladder infection once about eight years ago. I had no idea something was wrong until I came home one day and he did not come to greet me at the door. I called for him and he began wailing. Not meowing, not crying, wailing. I found him laying under the bed. “Jake?” I said, holding a paw.

“MWOOOOOOOOOOWWWW!” He screamed. He just laid there and screamed. It was terrifying. I flipped out, as you do, and called friends who had cars. My friend Rita told me I could take him in her car, fortunately, she was only two blocks away. Dean was supposed to come over to visit, we had just started dating. As I staggered down the stairs and out the door with a wailing Jake in a carrier, he pulled up on his bike. I told him what was going on and that he could come or go, but that I had to go to the vet. He came.

We took Jake in and they determined quickly that he had a bladder infection and that it was bad enough that he needed a catheter. They took him to the back while the nurse said horrible things to me like, “Weren’t you paying attention? How could you have let this get so bad?”

Then I got to hear my cat being catheterized in the other room and of course, sobbed my eyes out. Then horrible nurse said things like, “Oh, don’t worry, he’ll be alright, just wait until you have children.”

“I’m not * sob * having * sob * children!”

“Oh, how old are you?”

“Thirty * sob * two.”

“You have plenty of time!”

All of this while my cat is screaming his pain in the background and I cannot go to him. Needless to say, I did not bother to explain to this woman that I was going to remain childless by choice. I will fast forward to say that it was a horrible few days, but Jake recovered fully, other than being on a special cat food diet for the rest of his life, which we have adhered to.

Naturally after that trauma, I was suspicious of bladder infection. With things being as they are, Parker’s Paws had sent out an email weeks before detailing how you were to contact them, come to appointments, etc, to remain safe. I found the email and saw that for anything non-life threatening, I was to simply email and then to call if I hadn’t heard in 48 hours. I emailed. They called immediately and I brought Jake in at 4pm that afternoon.

They were very responsible. Everyone was masked. There were signs all over instructing you to stay in your car. Someone came out and checked you in from a distance. Then someone else came to collect your pet. I did my best and put him in the back seat on the opposite side of me to further the distance. Then I waited.

Our vet is a very good vet, in spite of having apparently gone to Auburn university. (Just kidding Dr. Garrett! Little LSU v. Auburn rivalry joke there!) She called me on the phone (responsible social distancing) and said that Jake was 8% dehydrated and his colon was very full. And that he could potentially have a bladder infection, but she was more worried about his kidneys because of his dehydration. I told her that he had been drinking a lot of water and actually been kind of a nuisance drinking out of his bowl, the tub, the sink the toilet, we had just assumed he was marking his territory or asserting his dominance in some way. She asked if he had been under any stress and I said... well yeah. And described that a bit. I mean, the poor cat is about to turn sixteen and lived about eleven years of his life in one condo in Chicago. He’s moved three times in a year and there’ve been fires and tornadoes every time and freaked out humans.

She said we had to get blood panels back, but definitely wanted to start him on antibiotics and a laxative. We did both of those things. (Thankfully, the injection antibiotic was slightly cheaper than the oral and lasted for two weeks so we saved everyone some stress there.) We got all of those thing started right away, I ordered a cat water fountain, which is supposed to encourage them to drink more, then we waited for the results.

Dr. Garrett called the next afternoon right after I had clocked off of work. She had his blood-work back and suspected cirrhosis, cancer or a tumor. I’m not sure what all of the liver levels meant, but she said that they were slightly elevated on our last visit in June at 204 and this visit they were 896. There was another level that was 60 in June and was now 312. I only know these numbers because I started writing them down as she was saying them and then realized I had no idea what they meant, only that this was very bad. She said that the lab didn’t have a big enough sample to run a test for white blood cells, so she needed more, which would not add to our cost, and she also needed to see what was going on inside him, which would mean x-ray or ultrasound. She said she would be there a few more hours and what did I want to do. I told her absolutely I would get him there for the blood sample and that last time it had taken me twelve minutes. (Yay, no traffic!) I told her I wanted her to have some imaging, but I wanted to be careful with our resources and which would she saw was paramount? She said absolutely the ultrasound. I said we would do that then.

This was the very first time he used that shelf in the new house. I was so happy. I had intentionally placed it where it might receive sun.

I cried as I told Dean what was going on. He gave me a hug and said he had savings too and helped me put Jake into the carrier. Jake was mad because he was eating. I got him there in record time and Dr. Garrett came to take him. Of course, she saw that I was upset and said not to freak out too much until we saw what was going on. I told her that if we ended up needing x-rays too, then we would pay for it, but if this was going to be a long haul thing, then I would rather save the resources for medication and what he would need in the future. She said she absolutely understood and would do her best to get a good idea of what was going on in the ultrasound.

Fortunately, I had brought a continuing education course with me to work on in the car because they said it would be 35 minutes. (They said I was free to run an errand or something, just to let them know if I did.) I stayed and actually finished the course.

Jake was an amazing, sweet prince, as he always is. He always gets comments on how sweet he is at the vet. Dr. Garrett came out and said that Jake was not fitting into any normal boxes. His kidneys looked very normal and even, which was apparently great for his age. His liver also looked pretty normal although it was ‘lit up’ so their might be an infection, for which we have already started him on antibiotics, so that’s good. The one thing that didn’t look right was his gallbladder. And she said that if I noticed him vomiting more than usual….

Here I cut her off. He has always vomited more than usual. He is the pukeyest cat I have ever known. He threw up on a cactus once. I have had him since he was four months old and he has vomited on almost everything that I own.

She said that it’s possible that he could have had severe irritable bowel or lymphoma his entire life and that we may not have known about it. Now that he’s getting older, things are starting to show up. She did say that normally cats with his liver levels are very yellow and fatigued and losing weight more rapidly and he was not doing that. He looked great.

A quote from her that I loved, “He doesn’t know his gallbladder is messed up! I didn’t give him his results! So don’t tell him! Just keep doing what you’re doing, we’ll keep him happy!”

The one thing was, I needed to learn to give a vitamin B12 injection to a cat. They needed to figure out how this was going to happen with COVID-19. As I finished my continuing ed course, someone came out with a mask. Yes, an actual, medical face mask. One of those that are so rare. She gave it to me and said they were going to need to bring me into the clinic. I was taught on a towel how to give a cat an injection, then she asked if I wanted to give him his first one. I said yes. Because, better do it now with a professional present than fumble through it at home having only done it on a towel.

It wasn’t that bad. Jake was a trouper. Only did a ‘Mmmmeeeeew’ as the needle went in. I don’t have to give him another one until tomorrow, so let’s hope he holds as still. And … it’s different holding needles in real life than on t.v. It’s really much more awkward. But I think I got it. I’ll be doing it twice a week.

Dr. Garrett warned me that removing his gallbladder might be an option in the future. I asked her if that would make him better. She said, “Before we put a fifteen year old cat through surgery, we want to try these other things. Because if he goes into surgery, they’re going to want to biopsy these other organs to see why they’re lit up, and it becomes a pretty invasive surgery. So before we put him through that. Let’s try this.”

So we’re trying. We got a water fountain for Jake today. He is terrified of it. But hopefully he’ll come around and he’ll drink more water. He loves his cat laxative. He wants more than we give him. So that’s great? There’s a supplement that we need to order on Amazon that might help his liver also, and I hope he loves that just as much.

Basically, Jake has been my buddy longer than any other being I have lived with. My parents and sister beat him by only one year. I am going to do what I can for him. He’s still incredibly spry and vocal and full of joie de vivre. I think he has ten very happy years left. (Shut up. He has ten years.)

Today I was going to go on a bike ride. Only because I hadn’t ridden my bike in so long. As I was about to head out, one of my property managers called me. They needed the mailbox key that I had as something might have been accidentally delivered to our box. I told her I had it, I was about to bike out anyway, and that I would just bike it over to her.

She lives on a hill and I was easily six feet or more away from her as I tossed the key up to her. She caught it one-handed. We were very impressed, it was like a movie. Afterward, I stood on the sidewalk and talked to her for a bit. Her dog very much wanted to come see me, but the humans knew why this couldn’t happen. She was lonely, but so happy that she at least had her dog.

I can’t image the people going through quarantine who are living alone, as I did for a very long time, and who don’t have a pet. I never lived alone without a pet. Dean and I actually considered rescuing another cat, a Bengal named Idris Elba, in Chattanooga, but he ended up adopted before we could snag him.

I think people are realizing more than ever how important their pets are. The pets and the planet are winning this week. I’m not sad about it. I’m not sad that I was home to recognize that something was wrong with Jake. And I’m not sorry that less people are driving. I’m sorry that so many are sick and so many are out of work and that so many more will be sick and many more will be out of work.

I do wonder if America will take any good lessons out of this. Because there are good lessons to be had.

Jake; a tale of cat gallbladders, livers and kidneys