I miss Max

I’m sad to announce that Max, the most awesome cat on the planet, died in his sleep last night after struggling to fight a blood clot. The clot was lodged in the main artery that feed his hind legs..which were paralyzed due to the lack of blood.Kristen found him howling from his litter box, Friday night, with his back legs paralyzed. When she rushed him to the emergency vet on Plainfield, his temperature was 90 degrees rather than than the normal ~102. In order to stabilize him, the emergency vet promptly put him in a tank filled with warm bags of rice and pumped oxygen into it.Both Chudy and the Plainfield vet diagnosed Max’s condition as “hypertrophic cardiomyopathy”. Basically, instead of his heart growing larger from the inside out…it grew from the outside in. The result is that the pump chambers grew very small. A clot subsequently formed, dislodged from his heart…and stopped at his hips..blocking the flow to his legs. Both humans and animals are affect by this condition and both can live with it. It all depends on Max’s stage of heart growth.The emergency vet could only offer euthanasia as ‘treatment’. I called Chudy and he had some different options. After talking we decided that we’d transfer Max to his clinic in the morning to perform an ultrasound and other treatment.We picked Max up early the following morning and thankfully his temperature was nearly back to normal (100 degrees) and he seemed in good spirits. Unfortunately, his back legs were still motionless and you could tell he was still in some pain. I was not impressed with the vet at this damn place. They last gave him pain medication about 6 hours ago.We drove out to Chudy’s clinic out in Cedar Springs. When we arrived, I didn’t see his truck yet and so we decided to just hang out in the Pilot. Kristen took Max out of his travel crate and began the snugglefest. After a few moments, you could tell he had enough of that. So Kristen set him on the set, and in true Max-fashion, he began to purr….when you ’stopped’ petting him. It was good to see him somewhat happy. When Chudy arrived at the clinic we started to gather his stuff together. I turned off the car and Max, as he always did, climbed into his own crate…even with his back legs paralyzed. He it was time to go.We brought Max inside and Chudy was ready to see him. Chudy seemed optimistic that Max would recover…but…cautioned us that Max was still in a critical state and the blood clot had to pass. Chudy would ultrasound Max after we left, but all we could do was wait. Before we left we showered Max with snuggles. We departed with his crate, favorite blanket, and toy bear. I don’t know why we didn’t just leave those there. I’d like to think that Max would have enjoyed such familiar things near him during such a frightening situation….and so we waited.That afternoon, an assistant from Chudy’s made a courtesy call and Kristen answered. The assistant basically told her that Max was about the same as the he was in the morning…which is somewhat discouraging. However, me being the eternal optimist heard that as…”He’s not getting worse…right!?Unfortunately, the next gray morning Chudy called with regretful news. Max suffered a heart attack during the night and died in his sleep. He was on some serious pain medication and thankfully didn’t feel a thing. But…honestly…I was shocked. I seriously thought that Max would pass the clot and we’d just have to put him on some medication. I explained this to Chudy which is when he informed me of the ultrasound results…..not good. His heart had basically sufficated itself. Even if his clot had passed, his heart would have gave out not to much long after.I know this all sounds sappy and that I shouldn’t be so upset over a cat….but if you’re pet owner, then you know how traumatic this is. Although he may be “just a cat”, he was a big part our Schavey family…and he was my buddy