Day five

Houston sleeping in the ICU

Enjoying some chin rubs from his Mum

Today's visit was really emotional for me.

When I got there they informed me that he wasn't to be moved from the ICU and my hopes of a happy visit diminished pretty quickly.

He was tucked up in his little box in his cage and he didn't move too much when the nurse lifted the box out and on to the table.

He wasn't responsive to my visit at all and I was quickly in tears.

Just before I'd left home my Mum had called to say that we seriously needed to discuss ending Houston's pain if he wasn't too much better today. I understand where she is coming from, I hope I am not in denial for my own selfish reasons. However I really do believe that Houston wants to be alive and home with us.

It's so hard to know what the right thing is to do.

After a little while the vet came in and told me that his lack of appetite and enthusiasm was very normal after a first chemo treatment. This made me feel a bit better.

And then Houston started to pick up a bit. He started rubbing his face on my hand and purring - and that made me smile - he definitely was happy to see me!

I had taken in some fresh mince and some raw chicken. At first he was a bit interested in the mince, enough to sniff it, but that was all. Getting him to eat will be a big sign of recovery and it was something I was really hoping would happen today.

So I spent the next 20 minutes patting him and I was going to leave and thought I'd try the food one more time. This time he was a bit more interested. And then he licked the mince! I was beside myself!!!!

I could see he was interested in eating it now, so I tried giving him smaller pieces and putting them on my hand, the towel and then the lid of the little Tupperware container I had taken the mince in in, and then success!!! He was eating it off the lid. So I kept putting more on and he kept eating it!

You could not wipe the smile off of my face!

Some very poor mobile phone footage of Houston eating the mince!

After a little bit of eating the mince, he then rested his head on the lid and that was that. He ate no more food and he spent the rest of my visit with his head down and me patting him.

After another full examination tomorrow we will find out if he can come home.