We said goodbye to Chloe on May 5th, a month after she came to live with us.
We kept hoping we could find some magic formula to help her recover somewhat from the damage that had been done to her body by the kidney failure, but we were unsuccessful.
We had let her have access to the outside during the day. During her last week, she'd started to lick the cement on the patio, PICA, which is a symptom of anemia. The anemia was because of kidney failure. She started sleeping on the bed and during her last week, she peed every night. The washer and dryer ran every day.
I bought a special blanket for her for the bed, a waterproof blanket. On her last night here, she peed on it at least three times. She would lay in the pee, then move. The "waterproof" was a layer of something between two pieces of fabric and the blanket was actually dripping when I took it off of the bed.
We made the decision to say goodbye. She did recover somewhat during the morning and I called to cancel the appointment.
But then, the same hour her appointment had been scheduled for, she lost control of her back legs. She couldn't stand up, she couldn't walk. And it became glaringly obvious to us that she wasn't making any progress at all. I called the vet's office and they were able to fit us in.
I'm really sad that we couldn't do more for her, but she had weeks of outdoor access, she had care, she had attention and she had all the love we could give her. She was the center of our attention.