On Friday, we took our eldest cat, Tigger, to the vet for a check-up. He recently had a urinary tract infection that did not clear up immediately after a round of antibiotics.

Last week, we started having incidents where he would urinate in front of us, almost as a message to us. He was still using the litter boxes and it wasn't as if he couldn't make it to the litter box - he was deliberately doing his business in front of us.

When we told the vet, he immediately said he was keeping Tigger for x-rays, MRIs, and other tests. We got a call later that morning to say that they found a BOULDER in his bladder and that because he was already sedated, they wanted to go in and get it out.

By mid-afternoon, they had extracted an almost 1/2-inch wide stone!

Tigger came home on Saturday and has been recovering well. He has been super affectionate and appears to be suffering no pain.

It feels awful to think that he had been suffering with the stone for months, possibly years, but it wasn't until recently that he actually showed any urinary symptoms that pointed to the real issue. Poor little guy, but he is feeling so much better now.