Hi, everyone. I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. Between losing my grandfather, being overwhelmed at the funeral, getting a little sick the day after my first Covid vaccine (which is totally normal because our immune systems are assholes, and the big saga of caring for our oldest cat, Phantom, I've been crazy busy. So now, let's talk about Phantom. Yes, that is him in a baby carrier. His back legs had gotten weak and even though he was eating like crazy, he was losing weight. We suspected either seizures or a stroke. So we took him to the vet I used to take my previous cats to see. Especially since they were so nice with my grandkitty, Shadowpaw. But when Kent brought Phantom in, it was a completely different story. They took one look at him, heard he was 20 years old, and immediately wanted to put him down. They would not listen to anything Kent said about how Phantom is eating and drinking and not showing signs of distress or pain. The one thing they got right was that due to his missing teeth, he wasn't eating as much as we thought he was because he was having trouble getting the dry food in his mouth. They gave him an antibiotic shot and grudgingly sold us some prescription wet food to get his weight back up. Out loud, they agreed with Kent that Phantom probably had a stroke or seizures. But they didn't write that on his chart. So, the very next day, Phantom had a huge seizure in front of us, we called to get some seizure meds. ...They made us bring Phantom in for another visit because there wasn't anything about seizures on his chart. And even though we saw a different vet at that clinic, they'd also asked Kent to put him down and were very grudging about the meds. But, the meds and the food have been working miracles. Phantom is gaining back a lot of muscle and hasn't had a visible seizure since being on the medicine. We found another vet and I cancelled Shadowpaw's dental surgery with the evil vets because I do not trust them to do everything they can to keep him alive if something goes wrong when they put him under. He and Phantom will be going to see the new vet on Friday. And I got a baby carrier for when Phantom wants to be in snuggle mode because he can be hard on my knees. We're not so naive to think that he's going to make it to 21, but we want him to be as comfortable and well-treated as possible, whether he had days left or months. | 
