I’ve been wanting to write about my cat for a long time. There’s a lot of people who don’t understand why a cat could be so important to someone, and I can sort of understand that mindset. But what I don’t think these people understand is that these grinch footed weirdos are really intelligent and can make the best companions to your life. Also I think people like that are probably generally boring. Conan might not even be the most intelligent cat out there, but he is smart enough to manipulate people for food, which has earned my respect. I could sit with him all day, but alas he has his own things to do. Conan’s Corner is dedicated to his stories.
What is a Conan?
Conan the Barbarian (a.k.a Conan, poopy, busha, concoon, coco, bumbooby, dumdoodie, shishumishu, boom boom, butt, bombony, conconie, cookashoo etc etc etc etc) is a short hair domestic 12yo (turning 13 next month) grey and white tabby boy. He is a semi indoor/outdoor goer and in his prime was a damn fine mouse hunter (and rats, lizards and unexpected string – true to his namesake). He was born on October 18th 2011, and we chose him from a litter in December that year. Personally, I’ve come a very long way in my knowledge of cats since then. For example, we bought him in a pet shop which is not something I would do again, knowing now there are cats who need adopting in shelters. But I didn’t know, I was 19 years old at the time and still had a long way to go in my cat journey.
Through the years, Conan has brought both routine and chaos to my life, and been a great companion to me during difficult times. It’s hard to explain but he’s my best buddy. He is a very good lap cat when he’s not being a barbarian and good company for anything. A very shy kitty around people he doesn’t know, he will hide when guests are over. He’ll also jump 6ft if he sees a shadow move. But usually, he roams around like king of the castle. He is a well trained food inspector, food being his main expertise, he must inspect anything you eat first to determine its quality (usually watching you eat like a creep or just needing to sniff the food, and be near the food, and comfort the food, and love the food, even after being fed already). So far, his career has been successful as all food has passed the test and he’s yet to find any food which doesn’t pass his test. Maybe fruit comes close.
Some sad news
In his old age now, he is very calm and plays less, goes outside for shorter periods of time and sleeps a lot longer. I was extremely sad to learn that he has a cancer, a type very typical of white cats. He has always been a superior sun bather, if sun bathing was an olympic sport he’d have several gold medals and sponsorships. It started with a little pin sized scab on his right lower eyelid. It was so small, we all just assumed he’d scratched himself and it wasn’t healing. After a while we realised that it wasn’t healing at all, just growing larger. It didn’t seem to bother him, it was still small. The vet did an operation where they took a biopsy and also cryotherapy on his nose for another scab. The results came back as a squamous cell carcinoma caused by a papiloma virus. I was devastated actually, mostly fearing that Conan would suffer, and the uncertainty of what that really meant and if I could even support him financially. He healed well after the operation and we didn’t see a scab for a few weeks, then it came back. We were given two options, remove the eye and surrounding tissue, or see a vet oncologist. As someone with not much to spend on myself, vet oncologist was going to be a long while away. I started saving, but I knew it would be a long time. I didn’t want him to lose the eye. I just don’t want him to suffer. At this time the scab wasn’t bothering him too much and he was being Conan as usual, a very healthy eater, playing and keeping to his normal routine. With nothing else changing in his daily life, I just kept saving.
Last month I was finally able to take him to see the vet oncologist. They believe that the cancer could actually be from the sun opposed to what the pathology from the biopsy revealed, but that we would need another biopsy to confirm (another few thousand dollars and unnecessary operation). The options were to either remove the eye as already suggested, or to try electrochemotherapy. I had no idea what that would involve, but I had a preconceived notion before going that any chemo was out of the question. In my mind, how would a cat know they are just going through chemo and how would he not suffer from this? The vet explained that electrochemotherapy might actually be the best option. It’s different from traditional chemotherapy. Instead of chemo being subjected only through intravenous means, it’s injected under anesthesia directly to the tumor or bloodstream, followed by electric pulses using special probe applied to the tumor. The purpose of this process is that it makes it easier for the chemo to get inside the cells. We were shown images of cats with exactly what Conan has, at a more progressive stage, who were given the electrochemotherapy. After a couple of sessions the lesion was almost invisible. It seems too good to be true. Expensive of course, about the same or just a bit more than the operation, and he might keep his eye if he can pull through and responds to it well. So today I just called in, that we’re going to go ahead.
What’s next?
He’ll be 13 soon, and his blood work is normal. He is still a healthy boy, though these days the wound under his eye is a huge raw mess. I believe he has a good few years left. I want to give him the best chance with the least suffering. I want him to keep being a happy cat, the little old man he has become. It’s a lot of money, but what’s money for if I can’t use it to save a friend who is so important to me in my life and become a part of our family. I’m apprehensive, for the pain he will go through, though I know it is temporary, and he deserves to have the best chance. He deserves everything. He is my best friend.
And so the saga continues, I’ll post an update after Conan’s treatment, and hope to see him continue being the happy lil grinch footed guy that he is.
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