Happy Birthday, Oscar-Tyrone

Happy 17th Birthday, Oscar-Tyrone," whispers LadyLee.

I whisper because he is sleeping. Heck, he's always sleeping.

He's sleeping with a frown on his face in the picture above. I came home to find him a bit stressed because he was constipated. Some of his hard poop had stuck to his but so I had to clean him up. He did NOT like being handle like that. And I don't think it helped that Callie Jo stood by watching with a look of bewilderment on her face as if to say, "What the world are you doing to him, LadyLee!?"

And for some odd reason I thought he was turning 18 today. But he was born in 1997. So that makes him 17.

He is old and sickly now. He has a funky liver, but his kidneys are still good. And he is hard of hearing. He needs to go to the vet, but I think they would encourage me to put him down. And I don't want to do that. Nor will I be spending two or three grand to fix him up temporarily. He doesn't seem to be in any pain, just quiet. And he likes to be held and rubbed.

I hold my breath every day when I come home. I look for him if he's not out in the open. I don't want to find that he has slipped away.

He rarely eats these days. I think his teeth are bad.  Right now he refuses to eat his expensive food. I mix some of Callie's food with water and I add some peas and carrots to it. I puree that up for him. He seems to favor that. And I see him walking around a little now, and his tail is wagging. But I miss the sprite Oscar-Tyrone. Even Callie Jo is looking at him like uh... "Maybe I don't need to do the flying squirrel jump on his head." She leaves him alone for the most part. But he was playing with her yesterday, however much he could. He is even sitting quietly next to his food dish, letting me know in his surly way that he may be hungry. I guess those peas and carrots are giving him life.

But for now, when he is sleeping, I lay my cell phone next to him and let Mahalia Jackson's Greatest Hits play soflty. He's an old man, so I know he has to like some good Mahalia.

So Happy Birthday, Oscar Tyrone. 

It has been a great 17 years, dude!

Let's try to make it to year 18:)