Sadly this wekend we had to take my 13yr old cat to the vet and the result was as feared.
He'd shown signs of joint pain and progression of heart failure but seemed generally well and happy. Sunday he woke me at 5am with a lot of crying, and seemed upset and unwilling to stay anywhere for more than a few seconds. As soon as I got downstairs with him I could see one rear leg was dragging his toes. A bit of emergency pain relief and a phone call to the vet and we were off in the car.
Diagnosis, he had a clot in his leg (complication of the heart problem) and a scan confirmed his heart had got a lot worse. I was given two options, a series of treatment that had a 50-50 potential to improve things but would be really hard on him , or to say our goodbyes. It felt as though the treatment option was really for me, a way for me to prolong his suffering and lead to either a really poor quality of life or at best a moderate q(but not good even for his age) qualiy of life but give me a few moths to accept what was coming.
So, I'm no longer greeted in the road by a cat who demands walks after my day at the office, or who come supstairs to tell me it's walkies time during he WFH days, or recognise and know the meaning of a few words of human gibberish (I couldn't say the word walk in his earshot or else I was told in no uncertain terms that we are going).
I'm left with the other cat, but their natures are very different.