Renard to the vet (with inner-kitty pics)

Renard is our 20-year-old cat.  Only 6 years younger than Gene who, by comparison, doesn't seem like such an old man.

He's also the sweetest cat, ever.  Ten years ago we saved an incredibly timid and shy cat from a very bad situation.  After leading a very hard life where, at points, he lived in a garage (omg can't have a cat and children!) and, after being forced on a new owner in a fit of blackmail, lived in a basement where every now and then the dogs that lived in the rest of the house would come in and terrorize him.

The day I met him, knowing that he was going to the shelter if we didn't take him, I realized he was coming back with us.  We went thinking that, no, we already had 4 cats, what are we crazy?  But as I saw him for the first time and scooped him up just in time to get him out of the way of the dogs (he lost a tuft of fur as one leaped at him as I picked him up, luckily at that point ending up with only a mouthful of fur) I knew there was no leaving him there.

One of our cats, Ace, terrorized him.  He was so timid, so scared of everything, that he wouldn't stand up for himself.  Luckily, Ace has chilled over the last 10 years and lost his asshole streak.  They now don't care about each other at all.

As for humans, he was scared to be held, was scared to come get some lovin' on someone's lap, would not jump onto the bed, and in general was afraid of everyone.  The rules and standards we had for the other cats ended up not applying to him; we bent over backwards to never make him feel anything but loved.  He got away with murder and was treated with kid gloves.  What Renard wanted, Renard got.  He really didn't want or ask for much, but other cats could ask for things and be ignored, but never Renard.

In the past 10 years he's learned to jump on laps, snuggle, be brushed, jump on the bed, and stay there all night snuggled up against someone.  He's the cat I look to every time I wonder if I'm a decent cat mom, because he lets me know that I'm doing ok by all of the changes he's undergone.

He's still coddled, never disciplined, always catered to.  However, he is still the sweetest cat I could ever imagine.

When we got him he was named Frisco.  We figured that those owners had no business deciding on his name, so his puffy orange tail with a white tip earned him the name Renard (French for fox).  Lately it's been expanded to Reginald Nardington III (because why should General Alexander De Helios be our only cat with a dorky name?), but he's usually Nard or Nardy for short.

So, here are some terrible pictures (ugh, he's really a gorgeous cat) of the orange kitty with the serene green eyes:

Renard also has kidney stones, kidney disease, bladder stones (had bladder surgery several years ago - he actually blocked the night before from what I could tell), sometimes has tremors that he doesn't seem to notice, a heart murmur, and the worst heart arrhythmia that my vet had ever heard.  When we had him in last November, she actually told us not to bring him back, not for vaccines, not for a check-up, not for anything unless he got very sick or started to lose weight - all because of the state of his heart.  At that point he had gotten on renal food and it was agreeing with him and he had gained several lbs.  Unfortunately, the renal food is terrible for a cat with stone problems, but it trumps the stones.

Well... we noticed his weight dropping.  It's hard to see due to his fluffiness, but one day I just petted him and thought, damn, that's one bony cat.

Back to the vet he went!  Last night he returned, terrified, and got a going-over.  He has lost 1.5 lbs, putting him at about 10 (he should def weigh more than that), and the vet didn't like the stuff we described.  He was so upset that the sweetest cat ever tried to bite a tech during x-rays and growled at us several times when he was brought back.  We had only heard him growl at Ace before, and that was rare.

He probably is getting worse in the kidney department and thus his decline.  Can't do anything about that.  There is the hope that his previously splendid thyroid decided to go wonky or his potassium is crazy which would be great!  Either can be treated.  But, we won't know until we hear his blood results.

A preliminary look at the x-rays revealed an increase in his stones and a decrease in the size of his kidneys.

He's still acting the same as before (and forgave us as soon a we got home), just wasting away.

Here's hoping that his thyroid is crap!!!

And, as promised, inner-kitty pics: