Leaf

Last week, I noticed my cat Leaf was having trouble eating. Years ago, I taught her to open her mouth when prompted. As if she were yawning. I learned how to do that from the lion keeper at the zoo. I kid you not. 

The problem is, yawns don't last very long. You can actually train an animal to hold their mouth open for longer, but I never bothered to do that. Her fake yawn wasn't enough to let me get a good look inside her mouth. Finally I thought to take a video. And there, under her tongue, was a big lump. 

This was on the weekend, when the vet was closed. So I had to wait two days, and then cancel other appointments to get her in on Monday. And during those two days, it got noticeably harder for her to eat and drink. 

The vet thinks it's probably cancer. Aside from medicine, there's not much they can do about it. She's old and has kidney problems, so surgery isn't advisable. And the lump would likely come back anyway. 

She has a follow-up appointment tomorrow to see how she's responding to the medicine. 

For now at least, she's still as sweet as ever.