I thought I posted this last night but I guess it didn't go through. My parents' cat is sick and has been at the emergency clinic since Saturday afternoon. He's on IV fluids, has a nasogastric feeding tube, has had radiographs and ultrasound, and has had a series of blood panels run with no real diagnosis as of yet. This cat is my dad's favorite child. He's trying to stay strong for my mom, my mom is having a hard time dealing with everything (especially since they won't really let her see him because he's..."spirited"). Meanwhile, I'm getting calls every couple of hours with questions about the pros and cons of certain treatments, what these tests are actually testing for, what I think the best decision would be at this point, etc. As much as I appreciate that they think highly enough of my knowledge to ask me, it's hard because I'm trying to give them just the information without a bias. Yesterday there were a few times where I had to say "if you do X and he doesn't get better within Y period of time, you probably need to reconsider your options." That was my nice way of saying that if he doesn't get better, they need to think about euthanizing him. I don't want to tell them that, it's much harder to say it to the people you love than to anyone else. I'm hoping that he's feeling better today (sounds like he might be perking up a bit) and that he continues to recover. One thing that I cannot handle is my dad breaking down. My dad has always been strong and logical. I've never seen or heard him cry, but he apparently came close yesterday when talking to my grandma. I will lose it. Please keep the cute kitty in my avatar in your thoughts, he needs to get better.