Patch has always been very friendly. He and his siblings came to our door and we started feeding them. His brothers, Scratch and Sniff, died about two years ago, so it's just him and his younger sister, Baby Kat. Patch makes friends with every creature he meets, and has brought home other cats, possums, and squirrels. He alone of the cats let me pick him up and pet him.
Recently, I noticed he was very emaciated and moving slowly, like he had arthritis, so I brought him into the house, and the next day took him to the vet to see what was wrong, and to euthanize him if necessary, because he's too good a cat to die under somebody's house the way his brothers did. His blood work was okay, but he had a low-grade fever. I've been giving him medicine for the fever, and for the arthritis, and just gave him a bath, because he hasn't been grooming himself. He is incredibly docile, and did not fight me very much at all. He knows to use the litter box, and has been eating and drinking, and doing his business. All he does otherwise is sleep, poor thing. He's no longer crying to go out. Molly knows him, and, being scatterbrained and indifferent to most things, tolerates him. She usually goes over to smell him, but I think she knows he's not well.
I'm not sure how much longer he has left. If I knew he was terminally ill, I would put him down, but he's eating and drinking, and it might just be arthritis; he is, after all, the equivalent of 90+ year old man. All my other companions, canine and feline, gave me clear signs. Patch is being inscrutable.
