(no subject)

Well, it looks like Merlin has had another little stroke. The primary symptom is that he's not able to meow...and, since he's a Siamese, that's a big thing. This happened once before almost a year ago, but he regained the use of his *language* center after about a week.

But it breaks my heart to see him TRYING to meow, and getting either nothing or a chirp. Of course, I don't entirely miss the SOUND of his meow. It can be very grating on the nerves (particularly in the early morning when I'm trying to sleep), even though I've had him for 15 years.

Other than the inability to speak, he seems OK. He's a tough little bugger, so I figure he'll probably recover for a while. But it's likely that he'll continue to have these *vascular* events...he hadn't had one (that I could tell, and I've been watching) in almost a year.

There's not much the vet can do (I've had that discussion with her), so I just keep track of what happens and how he's doing. If it were something more serious, I'd take him in. But he's eating, sleeping and following his usual routines, so I'm just noting that it happened.

Overall, he's doing pretty well for a 17 1/2 year old cat. :)