Cal and the TAXI

Well, I'm not sure if I ever got into the details of poor Calvin's health.

First off, do you remember as a kid, having your pets? Do you actually remember them having any specific ailment? I don't really. Part of that is because my wonderful mother would shield me from anything unpleasant seeing as I was a sensitive soul to animals (she cut me off from Walt Disney by the time I was about 6 yrs old - she couldn't take my tears...think Bambi, Old Yeller, etc! Those are just the obvious ones. Any movie where the animal was in an iffy situation though - the waterwork would start to flow...my poor mother). Okay, and the other part is that we just didn't take them in for "checkups". Aaaanyway....I digress.

The thing nowadays to do with one's pets after they reach geriatric age is to take them in for the yearly checkup. Mind you - we alone have footed the bill for a new wing at our vets between Rennie's allergies and Calvin's geriatric checkups and consequently the work and recheckups to follow up from said geriatric appointments (I seriously am going to expect a plaque soon over one of the doors...). So, anyway, at the last appointment we found out that Calvin is starting with kidney failure, he has cancer (a lump on his lung node, and some fuzzy areas in the chest), AND congestive heart failure. The last one seems to be the thing that'll get him the vet says. We can't operate to take out the lump b/c we aren't sure he'd even make it through the operation. Oh yeah, he's 16 yrs young by the way.

Well, this is a long winded way of saying, we started him on some meds and he's actually improved! NOT what I thought the vet would ever say. Especially since when Bullseye got cancer, he didn't have long at all - about 3 weeks. So, imagine my glee when I got the news. Way to go old guy. He's pretty spunky yet and luckily he hasn't realized there is anything wrong with him. I'm convinced he'll make it to 17 yrs old! It's just around the corner ...... Feb 2 - Ground Hog's day! Keep your fingers crossed all....

Oh yeah - as you can see, that's not Calvin in the "Taxi" as we like to call it. But let's just say I found YET another toy that is cheap that we seem to have on hand....it's amazing what these kids will play with. Why do we even bother with toys?