Category: Toby

It’s Toby’s “gotcha day” anniversary today, 17 whole years ago … and I almost didn’t think we’d get any more days with him over the weekend.

He’d been getting slower and slower and using his box less and less over the last couple weeks, but in the middle of last week he got the “big sad eyes” that he had the summer he was diagnosed with diabetes. He was also not walking well, another thing that happened before we got his diabetes under control, so I thought, “Maybe he needs more insulin.” So I gave him a little higher dose than usual Thursday night and Friday morning but he still seemed so distressed and lethargic, we made a same-day vet appointment for Friday.

Reader, he was hypoglycemic. His blood sugar was at 30 (normal is 150-300). He wasn’t walking well because he HAD NO ENERGY. I feel absolutely terrible. That larger dose Thursday and Friday sent him over the edge but it’s likely he’d been getting too much long-term, which was causing the slowness and the big sad eyes. Did I mention I feel terrible?

He ended up having to be transferred from his regular vet to the 24-hour emergency vet to go on an IV drip of dextrose for a night and a day. We visited him twice in the ER and he was NOT HAPPY–this was his first night at a vet in almost 18 years, he didn’t want to eat food, he just wanted to go home. Needless to say, everybody was a wreck.

But we were able to get his blood sugar back to normal and take him home Saturday night, where he immediately had a wash and an entire can of wet food and a big nap. And now he’s like a new cat–getting on the bed with us at night, walking fast, being sassy. I am so relieved (and still feel so terrible–we’re not doing any insulin until we can consult with his regular vet and get a blood sugar monitor on him).

So Happy Adoption Day to Good Old Toby. I’m so glad we didn’t lose you.

Take it easy because you were up all night being a menace:

Doc finally had to go back to work after his sabbatical, which means Toby and I were alone Saturday. It was also a rainy weekend, so no spontaneous trips to the mountains. Just a cat and his lady wondering, “Where is our person?”

Someone is doing well again after a week of what seemed like really high blood sugar … so someone gets to go to the vet for a 6-month checkup and glucose monitor tomorrow.

At least he’s feeling sassy again, though (and showing off his manicure!).

Advance footage from tomorrow:

Yesterday was the anniversary of bringing home a nine-month old Smol Orange Boi:

He quickly turned into a Large Sassy Boi:

He aged into a crumpled-ear Older Boi but remained sassy:

And now both ears are crinkled and he is a Very Old Boi with diabetes, but he’s still going strong:

I couldn’t get into any of my three thousand hobbies over the weekend, nor were the meals I planned and made as delicious as I thought they’d be, nor was the concert we went to Sunday afternoon as good as I wanted it to be. Even Toby was feeling the meh:

I guess we’re just waiting for the sun? Good thing spring starts this week.

It was almost warm over the weekend? We didn’t do a lot but we all enjoyed the light, including Toby and the latest batch of (very very slow-growing) paperwhites.

It was now or never for gift sewing on Sunday–except there were also errands to do. Doc offered to handle those so I could sew, but there was still one problem: After four years of working from home, if someone isn’t on the couch or at least in the same room with him, Prince Toby absolutely loses his shit. (Not literally, thankfully, but his yowls and cries and angry yodels are relentless.)

So Doc went out and I moved the sewing machine and ironing board down to the main room, where I could keep His Highness company.

Was it convenient? No! Is our kitty very old and very stubborn so it’s just easier to indulge him? Yes! And it was nice to have the record player going while I was sewing (after someone stopped meowing to tell me there were new! things! in his main room, of course).