I’m not sure if you call it a downside or not, but It’s amazing how much you can love a pet. It’s not the same as having children, but they’re a part of the family and come with their own quirks and drama and just when you think you know them, they still surprise you. The past few days Uzi has not been himself, and last night when he didn’t even come and greet me and stayed in Enzo’s room all evening, I made set up an appointment and took him to the vet this morning.

According to the vet, everything looked good despite his kidneys being a little further up under his rib cage than usual (which made it more difficult to feel them) and an elevated heart rate, which is tricky because that could just have been due to nervousness from being at the vet. However, due to his age and symptoms he could also potentially have hyperthyroidism, which is fairly common in older cats.  Part of me is hopeful that’s what it is because if his test results come back negative then that means we have another problem.

Yep, it would mean that our newest family member is causing more stress than we thought or ever expected. Up until a few days ago we thought that everything was going well. The cats were all tolerating each other despite Vega’s kittenish tendency of pouncing, but we hadn’t had any growling and there had even been nose sniffing.

Then something changed and now Uzi is skittish and in hiding and growls at Vega when she comes near. He’s not eating as much and has noticeably lost weight.  He’s more clingy than usual, but also has been staying in Enzo’s bed or hiding in our bathroom or other dark corners, which is completely unlike him and these new developments had me worried enough to take him in.

So, we wait until tomorrow before we figure out what needs to be done. I’m going to consult what resources I can depending on what the results are and we’ll go from there.