Well, it's come. The news that I didn't want to get. Opie's in the early stages of kidney failure. And my first instinct -- of course -- was "I want a cigarette," but I sublimated that with a root beer instead.

For those of you who remember (and probably no one but bishopjoey does), my cat Stoney died of kidney failure. And it was awful. By the end, she was on all kinds of medications, plus subcutaneous fluids. She was so anemic that her tongue turned white. Ugh, it was awful. Now, I understand that Opie is still in the early stages, but ... he's Siamese. I thought I was going to get to have another seven years with him (he's 13 now).

I suppose I'm still in some early stages of my own. I left a message for the vet because I remember giving Stoney something to bind potassium -- it was something like Maalox, or Milk of Magnesia -- I forget. I had other questions for her, but ...

Oh man. I so don't want to have to go through this again. You have no idea.