The saga of Ona-key has been quite long. I got her at the Capital Area Humane Society the day after I moved into the first apartment I could find that would allow me to have cats. I showed up in search of a cat and there she was.

The process of getting her down here with me is well catalogued here on this blog, as is her immediate sudden disappearance behind the fridge. About 2 years ago she started to go down hill. It began as a sudden fur loss on her back end that the vet attributed to stress because of the new baby (Ju was just born at that time). A few months later we found a lump under her front leg. The lump continued to grow and we had all her mammory glands removed, thinking it might be breast cancer. She recovered fine and seemd to be doing better, and then started to limp. It began as a slight hop on the back leg and we began giving her a small dose of pain killer to help her walk - the vet thought it might be a weak muscle which would correct itself if she was able to use it without pain. She didn't improve and we eventually stopped giving her the medication.

The limp became worse and worse until it was apparent both back legs were giving her trouble, becomming boney and sticking out at odd angles on the joints. She started laying on only one side, causing her wiskers to grow crooked on that side, and seemingly making the crookedness of her back end worse. For a while she stopped walking at all, hardly moving, and we discovered that her claws had begun to grow into the pads of her feet because she was not sharpening them. I trimmed them and she improved. He decline seemed halted and she hobbled around the house like an old woman, hopping up and down the stairs with difficulty, but full of life, and trying to hide from Ju most of the time.

The suddenly last night, she freaked out. At first we thought Lela was bothering her - she suddenly woke us up at 1am, yoweling on the veranda. We chased Lela away and brought her inside. She started again and I became worried that she was in pain, but she would immediately stop when I went to talk to her and pet her, so I thought it must be something else. She repeated the yowel again at 2am, then 3am (waking up Ju and scaring the heck out of him), and then at 4am, and again at 5am. Through all this, it seemed that she was yoweling at imaginary things, hallucinations, and that there wasn't much I could do to help her. At 6:30, I was making coffee and she began again, waking up Ju, who then came down stairs, telling me that "Ona-kay tah chorando" - Ona-key is crying.

She spent all day hiding in various places, and the nanny dutifully checked on her to make sure she was okay. She started doing frequent yoweling again when she went to go eat, but it's hard to judge why. I petted her for a while and brought her in here with me on my lap. She hopped up on the shelf next to the computer and now is sleeping where the cooling fan blows hot air on her face. She seems quite contented at the moment. The vet said we might start giving her anti-psycotic drugs tomorow, but I think she should be examined first. I keep remembering when my mom's cat died, how he came and told her he was in pain, and I wonder if Ona-key is trying to do the same.