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29 July, 2007

Cashing in One or Two of Nine

Over the past couple of days, Miss Blue, our intrepid kitty, having recently retired from State government service, having worked long and hard at the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) prior to moving down to Belize, had to have cashed in at least one of her nine lives.

"Nine Lives - Feelin' lucky
Nine Lives - Live again
Nine Lives - It ain't over
Nine Lives - Live for ten"
Nine Lives by Aerosmith

She came about as close as it's possible to dying as a kitty can without doing so. Close enough that Dianna and me had to force feed her (using a needle-less syringe) with special cat food from our super vet - Dr. Sheila. We did the same thing with water, doing both several times a day for about two days.

It started with what seemed to be epileptic seizures (we're not sure on that), then total loss of appetite for food and water, extreme stressing out, panting, rapid pulse and respiration, wide, vacant eyes, lack of balance, and probably a few other symptoms I've forgotten.

Anyway, we took her to Dr. Sheila, who, after examining her, sedated her and kept her for three or four hours to give her a drip to get water into her system and to draw some blood to do some tests.

Dianna managed to get a saucer under her to capture some urine for Sheila to do a test for sugar in the urine. All of the tests turned up negative or insignificant. Sheila did tell us while Blue was sedated, she took the opportunity to clean some of the plaque off of Blue's teeth (we've got to do a better job of keeping her teeth cleaned - at least annual trips to the vet).

After that, we took her home and began the force-feeding process. At that time, it just wasn't looking good at all. It was very upsetting for all of us. Midas even showed concern, coming around her much more than usual. Dianna even canceled going with Rosie (Cody, our grounds-keeper's wife) to a cousin of Rosie's wedding.

Well, little by little things began improving. Yesterday afternoon, we tried giving Blue some juice from a can of tuna. That sparked a definite reaction! That was the first time she tried to drink anything on her own for a couple of days. It was very encouraging. A bit later, we tried giving her some tuna to eat - she even managed that.

From that point till now, it has been a steady improvement. So much so, that this morning when I got up, Blue was sitting right near the food and water bowls and meowed at me that she was hungry. I tried giving her some of the soft kitty food Sheila had given us. Oh no, that wouldn't do. She wanted the good stuff - the tuna.

I gave her a couple of teaspoonfuls of tuna and a liberal helping of tuna juice (water, not oil). Right after that, she was at the water bowl,joggling the bowl to see the water level, and drinking quite a bit. Then, after a survey and tour of the whole house, it was time for a nap under Dianna's nightstand.

We may be out of the woods on this. It still seems like she's favoring her left front leg and her balance is still somewhat shaky at times. We're wondering if maybe she might have had a slight stroke. Who knows? We're still waiting till Monday for test results on blood count and thyroid, so there may be something yet.

Jenni suggested maybe she caught a gecko or spider or who knows what and reacted to it. All this could be in the mix.

We may never know for sure. All we do know right now, is that Miss Blue is on the mend, again, and appears to be well on the road to resuming her normal activities.

And we can relax.

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