I guess it wasn’t just the heat. Baby-kitty’s left cheek by his nose/under his eye is swollen. I’m guessing it’s one of two things: tooth problem, or he ran his face into something. Like a door. Ever since we’ve moved here, he’s liked to sit in front of the front door, and a few times we’ve come close to smacking him with it - y’know how pets are and how that happens now and then. One of those times happened last week as I came home with groceries…but I was pretty certain the door didn’t hit his face, if it actually hit him at all. Of course, now I’m trying to go mentally back in time, wondering if the door really did hit him, and it took a few days for the swelling to be noticeable, or something.

Then again, he’s nearly 18 years old, and it could be a tooth abscessing. I’ve tried looking at his gums/teeth, and don’t see anything super red or inflamed, and none of his longer teeth seem loose or anything, so I dunno. His face might’ve been slowly swelling up the past few days for all I know, but I only noticed it Sun. morning, when it became large enough to make his face ‘look funny’.

A third possible is allergy or insect bite. He’s never been allergic to anything before, and being an indoor cat his environment doesn’t change much. Can’t think of anything in that regard. Insects…maybe a spider, but there aren’t lots of black widows like down in south San Jose and…well, who knows. I always do this…stay up all night 2nd guessing what ifs. Heh.

He still wants to/does eat/drink, just not very much at a time - the swelling seems to make it uncomfortable for him to use his tongue or something, so he doesn’t want to “lap” much. He doesn’t seem to be in any major pain, and I can touch his cheek and stuff and he doesn’t yowl or even seem to mind all that much, so it’s not super-touch sensitive. But if the swelling doesn’t go down he’ll eventually starve from not enough calories. Anyway, he’ll be going to the vet. He’s old, but I can at least get him some x-rays or something to see if it’s something fixable like a bad tooth.

He was doing pretty well for his age, up to this point. A little hip-arthritic, but those epileptic-like seizures he was having a while back largely stopped after putting him on a better wet-food diet, and his mood’s been good. Sigh. Poor Baby. I hope it’s just a tooth or bruise-swelling.