Decision Making Philosophy

Throughout this ordeal, several people have echoed a dilemma I've been struggling with for some time. "If only you knew what Bitey wanted," they say.

I've thought about that a lot lately.

Bitey and I communicate on a basic level. He lets me know, with different meows, when he's hungry, happy, or disgruntled. If he's angry, or in pain, he'll hiss. On the flip side, I let Bitey know verbally when I'm not pleased with him (like the time he made off with an entire turkey carcass after Thanksgiving...although I clearly sent a mixed message because I was also laughing so hard I thought I might pee).

Bitey also has a vast array of subtler facial expressions, but the meaning of these are unclear. I know he's thinking something, but what?

So it took me until yesterday to realize that I did, indeed know what my cat wanted.

Bitey wants to eat (cat food, tuna, turkey carcasses, broccoli, butter). Bitey wants to sleep (on the back cushion of the sofa, in our bed, on the warm cover of our non-functional hot tub). Bitey wants to look at birds, and make that weird predatory "ack, ack, ack" noise. In short, Bitey wants to be at home, living his normal life.

Obviously, only some of this is possible now. But thinking about Bitey's simple pleasures helped me figure out which treatment option (see previous post) to choose.

Option 1) Putting him to sleep just doesn't seem right...yet. There's still too much life in his eyes, too much lust for food. That time may come, and soon, but it is not today.

Option 4) Surgery to remove the mass. This option was very tempting to a girl who likes to clean, clean, clean. But the post-op hospital stay is 3-7 days, and real recovery could take weeks. It just didn't seem to be a good way to spend our potentially limited Bitey quality time. Also, when we asked the kitty surgeon what she would do if this was her cat, surgery was not her choice.

That left Options 2 and 3. Option 2 was steroids combined with a shot of the kitty cancer "wonder drug" whose name I promise I will learn at some point (allspar?) That's what we did today (see next post).

Option 3 is chemotherapy and radiation. This is what we will do tomorrow.

And, in keeping with the theory of "what would Bitey want", our cat is finally home, at least for tonight. Bitey is laying at my side as I type, purring.