Phoebes update

Cats are so smart. In maybe 1995 Sonny was outside my (then) apartment building and I have no idea what happened but I called him and called him one night and he came dragging himself out of the woods by his front legs. The next morning I took him to a vet who told me he would need about $1500 worth of surgery or I should put him to sleep because he would live in great pain the rest of his life. Unfortuntely at that time my only option was to put him to sleep because I could never afford the other option. Luckily my across the hall neighbor was a vet and I tearfully told her and she grabbed my shoulder and said "Cats have been around for millions of years. Do you really believe this is true? Do you really think any cat thousands of years ago who had this injury would just die?" Thank you Dr. Louise Drane for this bit of wisdom. I allowed Sonny to live under my bed while he healed. I brought him food and water and carried him to a litter box several times a day and now, 11 years later (or maybe 12 or 13) he is 18 years old and not crippled and he has had the best life!

I was worried about bringing Phoebe home. I can and do work from home as much as possible and was prepared to have to carry her around and confine her to a small bathroom to discourage her from jumping and running but Phoebe is much smarter than I am. Phoebe has spent most of her time sleeping in the bedroom. Yes she limps to the litterbox once or twice a day but it's close. I take her a small plate of wet food a few times a day and make sure water is close but she knows what she needs.

Have you ever watched a cat give birth? I have never given birth but have seen videos and heard the descriptions and every woman I know says it is the ultimate most painful experience even though it is worth it. Human women yell, scream, beg for drugs and use foul language at the male who made them pregnant. I have had the honor of watching a cat give birth. Cats purr when they give birth. They have incredible focus and they breathe and they purr to sooth themselves.

Phoebe knows what she needs now and while I was ready to be the ultimate nursemaid 24/7 she only needs me to find her and love on her a few times during the day to remind her how much she is loved.

Phoebe Is Home!!!

I went this afternoon to pick up my little girl and she is now home and sleeping on the living room rug. Her right leg and part of her tummy are shaved so I'm calling her "Gi-Gi" because with her still hairy right foot she looks liked a POODLE! She is not amused by my humor.

With all the chewing off of the splint while she was in the hospital I was worried that maybe Her Majesty's temperament would be lacking but she has been nothing but a sweet loving girl. She has had some (canned) food, and some water. She has hobbled around a bit but seems to know that what she needs to do is be still and sleep. Every time I reach over to stroke her she wakes up long enough to rub her head against my hand and purr for a moment. She is as happy to be home as we are to have her back.

Family once again complete and life is good.

Funny side note - this was not inexpensive surgery. I knew I could handle it but also knew it would have to go on plastic and then an aggressive payoff plan instituted. So I put it on the Discover (low APR now and cash back), got in the truck, and drove home. When I arrived home there was a message blinking on my landline. It was Discover security urgently wanting me to call because there was a fraud alert on my account. I did call and since in the past 4 years I have made only small charges which have been promptly paid off they questioned the vet bill. I assured them it was legitimate. I really hate those calls that try to sign me up for services that I have to pay for but I am really impressed this time. LIttle shout out to Discover.

We're Missing Our Girl

Sonny hasn't asked to go out. He usually does this 10-20 times per day. Dylan isn't asking for loving. Camille is very quiet when usually she parades around meowing at decible levels that are difficult to deal with. I think we all miss our little girl.

When I called at noon I was told she chewed her splint off overnight. She is not happy and is not cooperating. Still I didn't drive out. Maybe I should have. Tomorrow she will be home and I will kick her furry grey ass if she gets out of line!

I miss my little girl y'all! My little fuzzy grey alarm clock isn't here being a princess and I miss her so much!

I Love Google Earth

I'm not an addict I swear. But when I have 10 or 15 minutes to kill or when I wake up solidly at 3:30 AM it is there for me.

So I guess I have to admit I woke up at 3:30 this morning and 30 minutes of tossing and turning didn't turn it around - miss my little girl so much - so I checked work email and then got on google earth and recaptured my travels. I went to Tokyo and Nikko and London and France and St. Martin Orient Beach, where it is possible to see individual beach lounges set out by the clear blue water. I traveled to Easter Island where you can see everything and Machu Picchu where you can see nothing but trees. I ventured on to County Wexford Ireland where my ancestors originated and marvelled at the sizes of the homes there since I figured they were all moss-covered cottages at least 200 years old. I even ventured to the Google complex and toured it wishing I could be emplyed there.

Sometimes I travel for a minute to China or Pakistan or Glasglow. Always it is an adventure and always I have another location I must add to my "must see before I die" list. I might read a novel set in Guernsey and I can go there on line.

This world is so huge and such an education y'all! Go see it while you can! If I had learned this lesson at 23 and not 42 I would have been an eternal vagabond. If you are younger than me please choose the world before marriage and children. Please. You will be so much more prepared for it when you return and will be able to teach your children so well. If you are older than me chances are you are retired. You have no job and a retirement that is waiting for SOMETHING. GO SEE IT! It is very scary to leave your life - I am scared shitless right now about spending a year in South America - but it's worth every scared part of your being. Just GO! I know I will love it and will probably spend days in bed being depressed and crying missing the house and cats but I swear to you it is worth every emotion to experience it.

JUST DO IT! (You pussy)

Phoebe Out of Surgery

Hey y'all!

This morning I took little Miss Phoebe in for her big knee surgery. I spent the weekend dreading it. I corresponded with sister Page (number 1 vet in the world except for her husband Paul who is a tie for #1). If you live in or near Cleveland Ohio and have a pet look up Burton Vet Clinic. Page suggested a second opinion mainly based on the fact that the Dr. who did the surgery today was not an accredited orthopedic specialist and yet gave me an estimate that was more in line with a specialist. But I really trust these people and frankly I just don't have the time before I leave the country and want to make sure I am here for the majority of her rehab, if not all of it. A second opinion would have meant calls and trips and exams and time so I decided to go with my gut.

I dropped Phoebe off at about 7:45. This morning when the alarm went off I kept pretending to go back to sleep 3 times just so she would feel she had a really important job. She was up for the challenge and got more and more insistent. She was proud and happy. Until I put her in the carrier.

Hard to drop her off. She is strong and independant and scary smart but in the end she's just a little helpless animal who depends on me as much as I depend on her. Dr. Brown called at 1:45 to tell me she was breathing on her own and beginning to wake up. They mended the cruciate ligament (ACL) and removed some torn cartiledge but didn't have to deepen the groove for her kneecap. She's in a splint but he told me I would be amazed at how quickly she is able to get around. I have no doubt.

I will call Wednesday morning to check and make arrangements to pick her up and bring her back home. The 3 older cats are acting very weird - Camille is strangely silent, Dylan seems slightly depressed and Sonny hasn't asked to go out in the backyard even once. Dr. Brown told me I could come visit Phoebe tomorrow if I want but I don't think I will even though I want to. I know if I see her she will expect to go home with me and while I believe animals have souls and feelings I also believe they don't have a frame of reference for the passage of time and so 24 hours recovering from anesthesia will pass like nothing for her.

Once Phoebes is adept at getting around on her crutches I will post photos.

The Cat Saga Continues

I never intended this to be a cat blog and I swear it isn't but that seems to be my life lately. If you must know I will be traveling again in September - details not yet worked out - and it is my priority to make sure the cats all have all their shots and thorough checkups before I leave which has put a dent in my pocketbook and frankly been a real pain since none of them cares for vet visits.

So anyway, I told you before about little Phoebe, the 15 month old baby of the family. I love them all so much but Phoebe really has stolen my heart. I've also told you about her waking me up in the middle of the night by tapping my mouth/nose so I will pet her/talk to her/let her under the covers. In the past couple of weeks she has a new trick. I've even tested it to make sure she is really doing it. When my alarm goes off in the morning I usually hit the snooze. Now, when the alarm goes off if I don't get up right away she is on the bed within a minute of the alarm patting my nose to wake me up! It isn't because she wants to be fed because they have a food dispenser and can eat anytime they want. She also doesn't do it on the weekends when the alarm doesn't go off. This is now her job and she takes it very seriously.

I also posted about 3 weeks ago that Phoebe has this strange thing called patellar luxation, which means her right kneecap slides out of the groove it is supposed to ride in. It also slips back in and my hope was that she would grow out of it/learn to adjust. 3 weeks ago Dr. A sent us home with prednisone for the inflammation and told me I would see great improvement in 2 weeks. Wednesday it was 3 weeks and she was still limping and my instinct was there was something in addition to the patellar luxation. I did know that was a true problem because my vet put my hand on her knee and then manipulated it so I could feel it happening. But my baby girl was still gimpy and so I took her back yesterday.

I didn't know if Phoebe had eaten so they had to induce vomiting, which was so hard to deal with as a mommy. Then they gave her anesthesia so they could get an x-ray and while it was developing they brought her back into the exam room where I was waiting. She was totally sedated but awake so her eyes were open and her mouth was slightly open but she was limp. It was so hard. At one point I thought she wasn't breathing and I was about to yell for the doctor when she just barely flicked the end of her tail!

So the thing is, in addition to the knee thing she also has a ruptured cruciate ligament. In humans this is a torn ACL. See I just KNEW there was something else. Always go with your gut instinct.

Phoebe will go in for surgery first thing Monday morning. They will have to drill a hole in her femur or tibia or one of those bones and insert an artificial ligament and tie it to all the other stuff and probably deepen the groove so her kneecap won't pop out. She will have to be in the hospital for 2 nights and I can pick her up Wednesday. So I expect I will oversleep Tuesday and Wednesday since my feline waker-upper won't be around. When she comes home she will have a splint on the leg and will need round the clock care. So lucky I can work from home. Splint off in a week, then gradual rehab. I know I won't fly until at least Sept 15 and my hope is it might be slightly after this so I can make sure she is literally back on all four feet.

This is not going to be cheap but it will be worth every penny to insure she has a good quality of life - and she is very young so she has a long life ahead of her. In fact, I could round-trip all four cats to South America for what this is going to cost. But this is why I keep my credit cards at a minimum of a balance. I once (about 16 years ago) had to have a pet put to sleep because I could not afford a surgery that would keep him alive and I still live with the guilt. Now I take very seriously this responsibility and won't go into it casually. I would love to live in a house where I stumble over cats but it's more important to me to adopt from shelters as I am able to provide a good home and the care that an 18 to 20 year relationship might require.

Vets are highly educated and trained and it ain't cheap. I can walk into a human doctor and describe my symptoms with big graduate school words in detail but vets have to understand a different language or no language at all and when you find one who can and does you have found a true gem. Never ever assume because a doctor administers to animals they should be cheap. When I see an hear about kittens left by dumpsters (2 of my 4 were found this way as 4 and 6 weeks old kittens - barely weaned and one other was just abandoned and found wandering on a highway - my Sonny who has been a joy to me for 16 years)) I get so angry that there are people who allow their pets to procreate. Guess it's mucjh cheaper to dump a litter of kittens than to spay or neuter. I know for every one of my four there are untold thousands and millions of pets who have as much potential as my Phoebe to be smart, funny, beautiful companions. Mine are all unwanted throwaways and I swear you wouldn't find more wonderful loving gorgeous cats anywhere. Love is the secret. Love makes beauty from trash.

Y'all send out good thoughts for my sweet smart little girl. I love her so much. I'll keep you posted!

Another Vet Visit

Late this afternoon it was time to take the final of the four felines in for the annual checkup. This time it was Camille's turn and it was so awful for her she asked me to make sure I wrote about it as terror like that is worth at least a small blog post.

Camille is a very assertive girl. At 5 years old she is the alpha cat in our home and always keeps me apprised of situations that require my intervention. She does this with very loud, drawn-out meows designed to get my full attention. But put her in a carrier and put that carrier in the car and she turns into the biggest sissy wuss there ever was. By the time we drove the mile and a half to Dr. Aponte's office she was being such a drama queen I was in tears because of laughter. Camille was not amused by my amusement.

And then Dr. A quickly got me into hysterics. A routine exam includes taking the animal's temperature which, of course, is done anally. Dr. A likes to talk to the animals and humans while she is examining them (the animals that is) and this is one of the things I like most about her. So she has this thermometer inserted in Camille's asshole and Camille isn't happy about it and Dr. A starts telling Camille that she understands - that "that place" is supposed to be an exit and not an entrance and she will finish as soon as she can so Camille will be happy again. Then Dr. A told me she rarely says this kind of thing in the exam room anymore after one experience. A man has his dog in - a very good dog and a very big, burly masculine man. The dog - um - squeezed up and Dr. A had a hard time getting the thermometer in so she tried to lighten the situation by saying "Yeah, well, this is understandable - it's an exit not an entrance isn't it Rover?" At that point the owner kind of flipped his hair and crossed his arms and did 3 snaps in a "z" formation and said "not always." And Dr. A since then has been very careful about what she says!

I laughed my ass off.