Down

You can’t ask a cat what’s going on.  Well, you can ask, but don’t expect an answer.

My problem here is that something is wrong with my 20 pounds of housecat.  He is sick.  I am not sure if he merely has a cat-cold, or something more serious has gripped him.

Honestly, I am thinking something more serious.

My cat has not eaten all of the food provided at any of his regular feedings for the last three days.  This is highly unusual.  Normally, he eats everything and then overturns the bowl in efforts to find a hidden morsel. 

“What’s up, Splash?” I asked him yesterday evening as he walked away from a half-eaten bowl of Fancy Feast salmon.

He didn’t answer of course.  He slowly sauntered off and crouched under the dining room table with his eyes shut.

I touched his nose to see if it felt warm—the way it would if he were fighting off a bug.

His nose felt cool.

The crouching is something, too.  I have seen that behavior in other cats.  Often, an ailing cat will seek out quiet corners where they can hunker in solitude.

He has been doing that.

The other morning I found Splash hunkering on the floor in my darkened master bathroom.  In the fourteen years he has lived here with me, I have never found him there.

Splash has become mostly inactive and his eyes are always shut.

He just looks…down.

—Mitchell Hegman