AKA - Vampire Kitty & Half-Vampire Kitty - because his fangs hang out, sometimes only one at a time.
Star was a very sick kitty last weekend. What I found out was that "male cats do that" - apparently with alarming regularity. Star is now 9 (or 8) years old. I thought back, and I guess I've never had a male cat that lived that long. Several years ago I decided that my cats would never go outside again. Outside is a very bad place for kittys, what with dogs, cars, mean kids, etc., they should just never, EVER be outside.
One day 8 (or 9) years ago, the kidlet and I went to Wally world. One of the local shelters was there, and in the middle of all the barking and yipping, I heard the teeniest, tiniest "mew" - we hunted around, and found this scrawny, ugly TINY black kitten. Now, I'm a firm believer that you don't pick your pets, they pick you. We went to Wally World to do our "regular" shopping. We stopped and looked at this kitten, the kidlet took him out of his cage, and he just attached (glommed would be my mom's word for it) himself to her. We went in, did our shopping, and I decided that if he was still there when we went out, he was ours. He was, and he's been ever since. We weighed Star at the vet's last week in his carrier. They weighed 18.5 lbs. I figure that Star probably weighs at least 16lbs all by his lonesome. Big Cat! We have small (Peanut, about 2 lbs), medium (Samantha, about 5 lbs) and large - Star. I never really appreciated Star until he got sick and we almost lost him. By my calculations, he was sick for a while before we knew what was going on. He'd started crapping on the furniture, and occasionally peeing, but mostly just crapping. I'm thinking now that was when it began. It wasn't until he started acting really, REALLY sick that I did anything. He couldn't walk, couldn't jump, wouldn't eat or drink, and when I was ready to take him to the vet, I found him lying in the litter box. Not really 'normal' behavior. So, I almost killed my cat, and I feel awful, but he got his revenge - $800 in vet bills. The biggest marker of how sick he was is how wonderful he is now. He's like a different cat! All he wants to do is be in someone's lap (or on a shoulder, but given that he weighs more than 3 bags of sugar, that doesn't last long) and be petted. And WHAT a purr! He can be heard from across the room. Another way he fooled me, is he purred the entire time he was sick, and while we were waiting in the dr's office. I kept thinking, "How sick can he be if he's purring like that?" Turns out, pretty sick. Kidlet said she thought he purred like little kids hold their blankies - for comfort. Anyway, Star's home, mending, and living like a king. He has his own bed, his own litter box, he gets only canned cat food, which he eats in peace in his own cage (to keep prying cats and dogs away) and he sleeps in peace in either his own cage, or a pillow in a chair. If I got treated like that after I came home from the hospital, I'd be sick, too! We love our Star kitty!
2 comments:
Cats do purr when they in in distress or very ill...apparently it is a comforting thing.
So glad that Star is better. What a handsome boy!
Thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving a comment about Charlie. It is so encouraging, and I'm happy to tell you he's doing much better!
My jaw just dropped when I came to visit your page, and saw how similar our week was. I could have written your post (minus the pipes problem)! Our Charlie picked us, my husband specifically, when he used to jump in the back seat of his car at his former workplace. This was just before we were married. I had planned on getting a cat anyway once we were settled, and he must have known, because he came to live with us the night after the wedding shower, and that was nearly 12 years ago! We are also an "indoor only" house.
Don't feel bad about your Star -- you couldn't have known unless you had dealt with something like that before. When growing up, we had a cat who started to make messes, and we thought it was just because he was an older male cat. Turns out he had the kidney infection and by then there was nothing we could do. I'm glad you got to Star in time. Now we know that if they do that, take them to the vet immediately because something is wrong. Cats don't normally like to leave messes because they are clean and particular by nature. Mine are both boys and have never ever left a mess unless they were ill.
Anyway, I'm excited to meet another knitter named Debbie/Debby (how do you spell your name?) who has cats and spent her week at the vet. Looking forward to reading more of your posts!
Post a Comment