The Ancient Old Beast

This our Ancient Old Beast .... a.k.a. Dinah. She turned 15 this past June and is still raising hell! Jim found her in a barn in Wisconsin while doing Peregrine Falcon research. She was so small that she fit in his coat pocket. While she never did grow up to be a big cat (only about 7.5 lbs. in her prime), she has the attitude of a tiger. During her lifetime, Jim has taken her on all sorts of adventures. She's gone canoeing, back country camping, skiing and an occasional swim. When she would hike with Jim she would perch atop his pack and balance flawlessly. Now as she grows older, her balance waivers and she has become slightly frail. She no longer leaves the house on weekend excursions. She sits in the window upon her heated bed and stares out at the falling snow, blowing leaves and other neighborhood cats.




Dinah never was an outdoor cat left free to roam the streets and terrorize the birds. When she would go outside she would be on a leash with a bell. However, one evening in her youth she was outside perched on the railing when Jim heard a crash. Rushing to the door thinking that she had fallen, he came upon a shocking sight. Dinah had managed to catch a bat! The bat was swooping near the porch light feeding on the bugs swirling in the air when out of nowhere came a cat on a leash. She caught the bat an had it pinned to the deck. Apparently, a leash and a bell wasn't enough to save the bat. Another time in the wee hours of the morning Jim was awoke by a terrible commotion in the kitchen. He turned on the light to find Dinah in a brawl with a raccoon! See, the house Jim had bought had a dog door. Dinah wasn't big enough to push through it so Jim hadn't boarded it up yet. That raccoon got more than he bargained for on his midnight forage for the kitchen trash. Dinah has put a dog in the ER by ripping his ear nearly off his head and slashed a good number of others. We were worried when we got married that she might do the same to Aspen.




Unfortunately, in May of 2007 Dinah was diagnosed with renal failure and was given only 6-12 months to live. She was loosing what little weight she had and was becoming withdrawn, not even getting up to greet Jim at the door after work. We got married and moved in the dog with little resistance. She would still growl and hiss, forcing Aspen to move and establishing who's house this was. Dinah began vomiting constantly and stopped cleaning herself. Without keeping her food down, her weight plummeted until she looked like a fur bag of bones. It doesn't help when she only has her front teeth and nothing to chew efficiently with. We thought for sure her days were numbered. She had never cared for canned food or the idea of softening her dried food with water. I tried everything to get her to eat more and vomit less. Finally, I found something that she not only would eat but could keep down. These disgusting whole canned mackerals. Yuck! The smell is repulsive and the look is worse. Yet, in love of the old beast I stifled my gag reflex and smashed them up with little bits of dry kibble twice a day. She began gaining weight and cleaning herself once more. Now she hasn't thrown up in months with the exception of a hairball or two and is feistier than ever. She has learned to beg and scream until we fix them for her. We are glad to see her playing and romping to the door when we come home. Too bad for the dogs though, because with this new found energy she often goes out of her way to smack them in the nose and show them who's boss.




Just last week while walking on my postal route, I ran into Dinah's vet. We didn't take her in for her "tooth" cleaning or for her geriatric check up this summer (why? so they could tell us again she was dying?) so he asked how she was doing. When I told him of the changes we made to her diet and about her "rebound" in health he mentioned a study he had just recently read. He said the diets high in Omega 3 fats from cold water fish can dilate the blah-blah-blah and help with the kidney functions. Thus, reversing the effects of renal failure. Interesting how I stumbled upon this when others were getting paid to study it.




Meanwhile, this is our old cat. Dinah...a.k.a. Beans...a.k.a. the Bingus... and lots of other crazy little names depending on the day. As for now she's doing well despite her qualifications for AARP and Social Security. She's accepted that the dogs are not going away but she doesn't have to like them either. She is the ruler of the roost.




MEOW on!