Nematode 199?-2006



In 1997, we decided we needed a third cat, and Nematode was the one we found. We didn't know her exact age, but she was around 4 or 5 years old. She was actually named Spike by her previous owner, but we didn't think the name fit. Nematode is a cool sounding word, even if she didn't actually have anything in common with the tiny, parasitic roundworms.




Then again, given her propensity to burrow under covers, she did seem to have something in common with the soybean cyst nematode.

Neme was a fairly aggressive cat, always muscling in on the other cats' food or toys even though she was the smallest of them, and was the only one who jumped up on counters and tables to go after our food. She also liked to sit and lay down on the other cats, which they didn't always like (but sometimes tolerated).

She would occasionally be fond of climbing in laundry baskets:


Here she sits in a window, behind the blind:


And here she's in a different window, ignoring a cicada:


In late 2003 she was diagnosed with kidney failure, and we had to start giving her subcutaneous fluids (i.e. injected under her skin) twice a week. She was doing fine with that treatment, but in 2005, her weight started to go down. Eventually she had gone from 10 down to 7 pounds, and the vet realized that a lump in her abdomen, which he had thought to be an enlarged kidney, was actually a tumor of some kind. It had doubled in size within 3 months.

We continued her treatments, and did what we could to make sure she was comfortable. By early February, it was clear that she was too small and weak to go on, and that only suffering would lie ahead. She was euthanized on Feb. 6, 2006.

She spent over 8 years with us, and seemed to enjoy us almost as much as we enjoyed her.


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This page was created by Sean Kinlin. Last updated 1/28/07.