Shortly after I first got and named Melvin, he started making Chewbacca type noises. I kid you not, he speaks wookie (wooky?).  He would make the noises loud and proud too, like others would question if he was a dog. I considered renaming him.

I’m Melvinbacca.

Those noises have faded some over the years.  He’s still Chewy in the morning when he wakes up but that is about it.  Until recently, when he started doing a hybrid version of wookie and moaning.  He’d do this mostly when he was going from sitting to laying but also in his sleep when he  rolls over or re-positions To be clear, the moans are pretty loud. The moment the moaning started, I thought… he must be dying.

Here is the thing… with others, when they moan or feel a pain, I am the first one to say ‘I’m sure it’s nothing’ and I wholeheartedly believe that to be.  I am not a worrier (unless something is confirmed that it should be worried about).  This is not the case with Melvin.

A few years back, when Melvin was losing weight, having increased tremors, low energy and the whatnot, several vet visits led our medical team to feel that Melvin might have a primary cancer somewhere.  We searched and found nothing.  Then, a few years after that he had his first seizure (and then others) and was having new, different symptoms along with the old symptoms that had come back and we went to see the neurologist who broke our bank did every test in the book and he too said the words:  my gut tells me there is a cancer.

They found nothing. But the seed had been planted in my head and I live with that worry now.

Melvin has a slew of ongoing issues and they have never really been explained (we just treat them for now). thus when he starts to moan, I think, it’s the end. Yes, I know it’s crazy and there is this little part of me that screams ‘stay calm, be normal, go towards the light!’ but I usually silence that voice and continue down to crazy town.

There is one other thing working against me on this.  Melvin tends to sit and stare at me.  When I say stare I mean ‘uses his eyes to burn a hole to my soul’.  And when he does this, I think he’s trying to tell me something.  I mean vets are always saying ‘they will let you know’.  So if he moans AND THEN stares, well I think you can imagine how fast it goes to DEFCON 1.

Soul staring. 

Melvin is going to the vet next week for a full workup. He has a lame liver so we want to be sure nothing has worsened on that front.  I know the moaning is likely old age, but we owe it to Melvin (and my sanity to be sure).  And we haven’t been to the vet in over a month so that feels super odd.

Happy Weekend from me, wookie and wonky!