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# This post is about a cat
- URL: https://bayou-city-sludge.ghost.io/this-post-is-about-a-cat/
- Published: 2026-06-02T21:45:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-07T22:47:33.000Z
- Description: Because I have nothing else to do but sit around and worry
- Author: Sara Cress
- Tags: Newsletter, #Migrated-1794091451356, #Import 2026-11-07 22:47

Her name is Juniper. She is 17 years old. She was born in my childhood bedroom in Pasadena, Texas, long after I’d moved out. She is a dilute tortie. I’ve had her since she was six weeks old, but met her earlier than that when she was just a tiny bean in a dark corner of that little room that had become filled with unused stuff.

My boyfriend at the time and I decided we could take on a third cat, so we did. She was a wild kitten, jumping feet into the air during play. She would hiss at her toys. She was funny that way

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6d/51/6d51d957-e70d-452f-8661-3823af319edd/content/images/2026/11/b37f2787-35d4-48c2-89a2-56f46737c770_997x645-1.webp)

First night home.

She has been with me since I was 31, so you can imagine she has seen me through some turbulence as I became an adult. A heart-breaking layoff during a recession that left me jobless and lost for seven months. A turbulent breakup with the man I’d been with for nearly nine years. All of the screaming and moving and loneliness and crying, she was there.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6d/51/6d51d957-e70d-452f-8661-3823af319edd/content/images/2026/11/1af858c1-923c-4499-87b8-21583876a290_3024x2976-jpeg.jpg)

Juniper today in her box.

Oh, she loved to listen to me sing and play the flute! I forget about that now because she has been deaf now for a couple of years. But when she could hear she would join me in whatever room I was in and sing along with me.

She is by no means a perfect cat. She has never used the litter box properly and now just goes wherever she wants and I follow along to clean it up. Thank god for tile floors. She would howl at night as I was trying to go to sleep until I came out into the living room to, I don’t know, tuck her in or something. And since going deaf she SCREAMS and SCREAMS and it sounds like she’s saying “OH NO.” She is also peculiarly strong, so getting her to the vet has always been a terrible chore. So now I spend a crazy amount of money to bring a vet to her.

Which is what I did on Friday because I’d noticed her breathing harder. The vet noted an arrhythmia and took blood to check her heart enzymes. Yesterday it was confirmed that she has a significantly enlarged heart, which means she has some kind of heart disease.

The vet was very clear that further testing could stress her out to the point of death, but testing could also reveal that we could manage this with medication. It’s a tough choice to make. She will need an echocardiogram and chest X-ray to determine what’s going on.

I spent yesterday lifeless and worried. I’ve spent today watching her like a hawk for signs of distress. But she continues to eat and drink water and get up on furniture and into her favorite Costco box. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do. I’m waiting on a bit more guidance from the vet.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on over here. It sucks.