Casi-Casi at the Nuclear Cafe
Monday, July 25, 2016
 |
| Casi-Casi & Lauren Stewart |
Today we took our cat, Casi-Casi for treatment of a hyper-thyroid problem.
Before I continue I will explain our 11 year-old’s name.
When we chose him at the Vancouver SPCA 6 years ago he was called Cassie. I
enquired as to why. I was told, “His real name is Casinova.” Since at the time
Cassie was an 18 pounder almost as big as a house (casa in Spanish) I decided
to combine all that with the name Casi. I like the repetition so he is
Casi-Casi.
We could have treated Casi-Casi’s problem with two pills
(one in the morning and one in the evening) for the rest of his life. Our SPCA Veterinarian
Peter Lekkas (spends most of his living time explaining to people that he is not French but Belgian)
suggested that treating Casi-Casi with Iodine 131 while expensive would be the
way to go.
And so we went to North West Nuclear Medicine for Animals
(who would have known?) and left him until Saturday. They will inject him today
but because of Canadian Health Standards they must keep him until the half-life
of the iodine does it thing and he will be safe for us to have him home by
Saturday. The vet explained that the radiation that the cat gets (should we
worry?) amounts to that of what we would have after an airplane trip to Hawaii.
Casi-Casi meowed in his cat box in the back seat and as I
looked at him it all confirmed that he solely depends on us. It is that dependency
that makes having a cat so much of a pleasure.
And more so because Casi- Casi is most placid and never
hisses or scratches at anybody, even children that may be new to him. He likes
to fight with me but his bites are gentle and his zaps never cut. I have never
trimmed his nails.
When we returned home neither Rosemary nor I said
anything but it was most evident that a member of our family was missing.
