So we received the news recently (as some of you may have seen on my Twitter feed and Facebook status), that Tai Gau has mast cell tumors growing throughout his abdomen. Right now he’s happy and eating up a storm while being medicated with prednisone, but the prognosis is that he probably has only 1-6 months to live.
He is 14 years old and has lived a luxurious life for a cat whom we picked out of the animal shelter on July 4th weekend in 1996. Being deaf and also having suffered feline urinary syndrome all his life, in the wild he would not have lived past three years. Instead he has been loved and given much love in the form of headbutts, purring, and drool on nearly all comers.
If you would like to come get headbutted, purred at, or drooled on one more time, we’re having a party for him on July 3rd, 7pm to midnight. Tai Gau LOVES PEOPLE and he loves parties where lots of people sit around and talk and eat and PET HIM and CARRY HIM AROUND.
The party will be a fundraiser for the Boston Animal Rescue League, the shelter we got him from. Nothing fancy, we’ll have a collection jar out, and if you can’t be at the party but want to make a donation, here’s a Paypal donate button, too. We’ll take whatever we raise and put it into one donation from Friends of Tai Gau.
Please bring something to eat or drink to share with everyone — and let us know you’re coming so we have an idea how many to expect.
Please go light on actually feeding Tai Gau at the party — we’re spoiling him rotten anyway — and there are some things that make him puke (onions, garlic, any kind of red meat or meat juice, to name a few). (Licking something creamy or salty off your fingers here and there is probably OK, so long as it avoids the abovementioned.)
Any who have made Tai Gau’s acquaintance over the past 14 years are welcome. Please note the house is not childproofed and we allow no shoes inside.
P. S. Varenka, aka Renki, aka Female Calico Hughes, aka Miss Hughes the Cat of Many Hues, would also appreciate some attention, though she’s not one for big parties so much anymore.
Party for Tai Gau
I’m so sorry to hear that. We know we have to lose them eventually, but that doesn’t make it easier. We just lost one of ours to what was probably cancer of the liver. We decided there was no point in doing a biopsy to find out exactly which kind. The prednisone did help – we had about 8 months between diagnosis and when he finally passed. I don’t think he was ever in pain, but he got very mentally confused toward the end.
Some things that may help – when his appetite started to fail, our vet suggested giving him vitamin B-12 as an appetite stimulant. It took some looking but we managed to find it in liquid form at a health food store. Meat flavored baby food is also a good treat when they’re just not sure they want to eat.
Yeah, our vet says when its his time to go he’s probably going to just get too uncomfortable to eat or refuse to eat. Right now his appetite is the best its been in a while, so the prednisone is working well to make him feel better at the moment.
It’ll still be a sad day when he goes, but at least I don’t feel we were cheated of our time with this cat. He’s had an excellent run.