Gizmo's 15th birthday

Yesterday, the 1st of November, was Gizmo's 15th birthday. For those of you in the US, it is still Gizmo's birthday right now! So celebrate. :)

Gizmo is my eldest girl, and over the past year she has had a bit of a rocky time. She has frequent urinary tract infections (and she gets sick on almost every oral antibiotics, so I have to inject her - sometimes every day depending on what antibiotic she needs!) and was also diagnosed with stage 2 kidney disease last year. A few months ago, Gizmo got a bad UTI that actually went all the way up into her kidneys, she had to go into the clinic and stay there on IV fluids for five days. Her kidneys took a big hit, and never fully recovered. She is now in stage 3 kidney disease (there are four), but is also losing a lot of weight. I am hoping I can get at least get her to maintain weight and then hopefully a long period of stable kidney disease... I hope.

So with all that is going on with her, celebrating her birthday was especially important. Especially for a 15th birthday! Here are some photos for you.


This is Gizmo on Monday night, her last night of being a 14 year old.


And this is Gizmo on the morning of her 15th birthday! Isn't she lovely?


I had to work a 12 hour day on Gizmo's birthday, so you imagine how eager I was to get home to her! I found her on the sofa, sleeping on the pink Snuggie. The Snuggie was originally mine, but then my black kitty Dim Sim decided she loved sleeping on it, so it became hers. Gizmo loves stealing the sleeping spots of other cats, and she has taken to stealing the Snuggie, much to Dim Sim's disgust.


So, for her birthday, I got Gizmo a new bed! (She has lots of other beds/blankets/sofas/etc as well). This is an adorable reversible bed by Fuzz Yard, the pattern is called Carnival. On the inside is a caramel colour fleece, and on the outside it is cream coloured with big pastel spots. And it is reversible, too! So I can switch from a fluffy inside to the material inside. Very cute and clever.


Verdict? After an initial few minutes of completely ignoring it (she has to maintain that aloof kitty air, after all), Gizmo decides that she loves it. Like, really loves it. The cats sleep up in my room with me at night, and after I fell asleep last night Gizmo hopped off our bed and went back downstairs to her bed! She has been in her bed a lot this morning, too!

So happy birthday my beautiful girl, I hope the universe sees fit to grant us many more together. <3

What did you give your animal companion for their last birthday?