It’s hard to believe it’s only been a little over 3 months since we adopted our cat, Grandpaw. This loveable fur ball has become so ingrained in our daily lives, it’s already hard to remember a time when he wasn’t. In case you missed it, I wrote a blog post back in January about our experience with the cat adoption process. Today, I wanted to share an update on how it’s been taking care of my very first pet, my two year old arthritic Grandpaw.
Arthritis
We’ll start with the arthritis. Grandpaw’s arthritis doesn’t seem to impact his quality of life at all. The first couple weeks, if we touched his hips or back legs where the arthritis is, he would whip his head back and maybe hiss, but he would never bite or scratch. He quickly realized he could trust us, and now if we pet him there, he doesn’t react at all. We give him pain medication twice daily with his food, and he doesn’t seem to notice the difference – he still gobbles it all up! Mobility-wise, he’ll jump on the couch, run up and down the stairs, and jump on the bed to sleep with us at night. He’ll also jump onto this chair at the kitchen table, which he’s designated as his own, to watch us cook dinner:
Lap Cat
From the moment we met Grandpaw, we knew he was a sweetheart. We walked into his room at the rescue, and he immediately walked up and started nuzzling against our legs. As the weeks went by, we realized that Grandpaw was just getting warmed up. In addition to keeping us company in the kitchen, he is undoubtedly a lap cat. He would much rather plop onto our laps and zonk out than sleep on one of his many cat beds.
Just because it’s marketed for cats…
Speaking of his cat beds, we quickly learned that just because something is marketed for a cat, doesn’t mean a cat will like or use it. Grandpaw has 4 cat beds (one gifted) for different rooms, a scratching post, two scratch mats attached to the arms of our sofa, a cat perch, and many cat toys. Of the plethora of things, the only thing he initially took to were the sofa scratch mats. After a couple months, Grandpaw finally started using his perch. He hops up and watches me leave for work, he’s sometimes there waiting when I come home, and periodically he’ll people-watch throughout the day.
The reality of caring for another living being
Caring for another living being is a lot of responsibility. The fact is probably obvious, but what might not be as obvious is the reality. When we adopted Grandpaw, we knew he would need to be on arthritis medications possibly for life, and that he would possibly need surgery that would cost over $1000. After we adopted him, we took him to the vet to get him up to date on some of his vaccinations – that cost a couple hundred. Then about a month in, he started wheezing. The wheezing became more frequent and prolonged, so we took him back to the vet. We did xrays, blood tests, added medications for the wheezing, and changed his arthritis medications due to interactions with the wheezing medications.
Despite being a sick little guy, Grandpaw is happy as can be. He lives to eat. But that means that he is a real life, living alarm clock every morning at 7:30 AM when he’s ready for breakfast. For some of you, that’s not early, but I like to sleep in on my days off. I’m not a pleasant person when woken up unwillingly, but you can’t be mad at your fur baby. Sleep, time, and money are just a few of the things you need to sacrifice when taking care of a pet. But Grandpaw is the best cat we could have asked for and more, and we have zero regrets.
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Thanks for reading!