Linda and Gary are going to Germany for a week. Piglet came by in the evening of January 12 He wasn't feeling so well. He's in the advanced stages of Chronic Renal Failure which, having just turned 19 is to be expected. He's taking several medications and has just started on subcutaneous hydration. Linda and I gave him his first injection at home which he didn't seem to mind terribly. Afterwards he sat down in her lap and had a nap. His eating has slowed down (he hadn't eaten all day) so we hand fed him about 6 ml of pureed food. He did not like this. But around midnight his appetite showed up and he devoured a can of Sheba mixed with prescription cat fud.

He slept in his box all night. Mostly he sat up awake and dozed a little. I checked in on him at 2:00, then at 4:30 I woke from a dream in which I was with Piggy in all his rotund glory aboard a WWII Battleship (go figure). So I got up and checked in on him again. He still seemed to be awake. Finally, I got up at 6:30, offered him some fud, which he wasn't interested in, but I put him in my lap and he went to sleep.

Linda came over at 9:00 in the morning and he slept in her lap for a while. He actually likes her. My lap is in his list of "favorite places" behind things like drawers filled with silverware, plants, and his food dish. We hand fed him a little more, which, once again, he wasn't too keen on. But he used the litter box and drank from his fountain. This was tiring work. So he took a little nap again. He has massive food-face from his crazed attack on the Sheba can the night before. It was crusted all over. He would not tolerate it being wiped off. But he did use the litter box (something he couldn't be bothered to do when healthy.) We stayed with him until about 10:00 and Linda left to do final pre-airport errands and I left for work. I couldn't stop worrying about him.

At lunch I ran home to eat with piglet. I found him sitting in his box. Offered him some perscription cat fud (pureed). He wasn't interested. He was interested, however, in the Sheba, but he's having trouble eating (he had an infection in his mouth which antibiotics seem to have cured, but he might have some new dental problem which makes it difficult for him to chew and the vet doesn't want to anesthetize him until he's gained some strength back.) But I found that if I squirted the puree on top of the Sheba, he'd lick it off. He ate at least half a can this way and then went and had a drink.

I brushed him, left him sitting on his heating pad and came back to work.