I absolutely love my cats. And to return the favor, they absolutely love to have serious medical problems that result in insanely huge vet bills. I’ve had three different cats that had three completely different problems crop up, each ending rather differently. Here are my stories of the sick cats in my life.

Death is inevitable with pets. No matter how strong they are, they all eventually pass away. My first cat ever, a strong black cat named Alex, proved day-in and day-out that he was capable of fighting bears if one ever found itself unlucky enough to lumber through our living room. Alex, however, had a habit of sneaking out of the house when we weren’t looking, and one such occasion he got into some antifreeze one of our less-friendly neighbors left on her porch.

The result is exactly what you can imagine. A few weeks before Christmas we discovered that Alex’s kidneys are shutting down and that there’s nothing we can do to help him. Despite all our prayers, Alex still passed away after a long and painful struggle.

This would not be the same end that our next cats would face. Alan and Max were adopted shortly after Alex’s passing and both found themselves to be quite adept at making trouble, with Max leading the way for new levels of naughty. Yet even though Max was always in trouble, Alan was the one who got sick the most. After having his weight fluctuate wildly and needing a feeding tube off and on again, we learned that Alan had both a thyroid problem and was diabetic. He’s still leading a perfectly healthy life right now, but he has to get insulin shots every day and refuses to use his back legs like normal, opting instead to walk around like a bunny.

Max, however, would prove to be the most unique of the bunch. He decided one day to grow a softball-sized tumor in his digestive system, mostly because he knew we were saving up for a trip to Disney Land and were just about to leave. He went into the vet and we sacrificed our vacation to save our stupid cat, only to be told that he had six months to a year left to live.

We were sad then, but we’re smiling now as Max is still going some eight years later. Eight years! How often do cancer cats bounce back to the point that our vet is convinced we’re trying to trick him with different cats?

I’m just happy for the time I have with my cats since they’ve proven t be worth the trouble and the money, even if it means no trip to Disney Land for another year or so. I just hope you don’t have to go through the hard times like that with your pets.