Spoonerisms: All's Well When the Kitty's Well

I hadn't posted about the little girl in a couple days because something worrisome happened. She had been increasingly sluggish Sunday, and I realized Monday night she hadn't been touching her food or water. I got her to eat some kitty treats that I put under her nose, and I didn't get much sleep that night. I took her to the emergency vet in the morning. She was running a fairly high fever and was dehydrated.

I was put in the position where I was looking at shelling out a lot of money for what was not legally and might never legally be my cat, all because of someone's inhumanely (but unfortunately too commonly human) irresponsible behavior. And that really pissed me off. At that point, if someone came forward to claim her, I would have ripped them a new one. (And I still feel that way.) I agreed she needed to be hospitalized, though, and, still worried, went home. Let's face it, my recent veterinarian experience has not been good. I realize it's only one data point and a very different situation, but the wound is still fresh. And this is such a young and sweet kitty who doesn't deserve this, not that any animal does.

Most of her tests came back normal, except for a spike in some white blood cells. It all indicated some kind of infection, logically something she had picked up while she was homeless. That made my blood boil. When I visited her the first evening, after they had gotten some fluids back in, she spent the whole time in my lap. She kept her head up a lot of the time, especially when there was a noise outside the exam room we had to ourselves, but she didn't try to leave my lap. When I visited her yesterday evening, the technician said her temperature was down some and they had gotten her to eat a little baby food. She definitely seemed perkier, although again, she spent the whole time in my lap, although she frequently rearranged herself. I spent 1½ hours there, reading and talking to her. And this morning, the vet said her temperature was close to normal and she was eating her food again, and I could take her home. Yay!

She cried the whole way home, but once I got her back in my bedroom and let her out of the carrier, she seemed, well, at home again. She ate a little food and then jumped on my bed with no problem and took a very, very long bath. Then she got some more loving from me, sprawled out purring on my stomach for several minutes. As you can see from the picture, she seems pretty damn relaxed. (You can also see where they shaved patches of fur from her forelegs for needles and such. Ouch.)

While it is highly unlikely anyone's going to come forward now, I'm still admittedly somewhat irrationally afraid to say definitively that she's mine. Still, I was so worried and I missed her while she wasn't here. She has that power over me.