Well, we got the good news last night. The vet said his blood work checked out fine. I believe they check enzyme levels (or something like that) and they are all stable, at the same level they were at 6 months ago. And she said the fact that he has gained weight is a good sign that he is doing good. Her last comment was "So overall, he's doing extremely well for a guy his age."

So it's now a year since he was first diagnosed with "early stages of kidney failure" and he's doing better than ever. I have been giving him 1/4 of a Pepcid (which is an antacid) a day. He doesn't particularly like taking the pill, and if I don't stuff it in just right, he will spit it out, but we've both got the hang of taking/giving pills so things go much better with that these days. The vet said giving him the Pepcid wouldn't reverse any damage that had been already done, but it would slow down the progession of the disease, and it sure seems to have done that, and I believe it did reverse it a little because at his last 6 month check up, one of the "numbers" had gone down.

So I guess my old man will be around for awhile.