Wednesday, September 22, 2010

I did forget someone!

We have five cats, still. We adopted Mitzi and her son, Felix, at the end of March. Felix ran off about six and a half weeks later, which was very upsetting as he was the more affectionate of the two.

Mitzi is fifteen, Felix was fourteen. He has tattooed ears, but no one has ever contacted me to say they've found him. I hope he is safe and well somewhere, but I fear the worst. He'd been going out for about three days when he disappeared, so he may have become disorientated and lost his way. Poor wee man...

Mitzi has taken a long time to settle in. She is a very individual old lady, still pretty spry. Very pretty little face. She doesn't like to be petted too much, but she does like it until she remembers she's meant to be a mean old baggage. You have to read the signs to know when to stop, or she will scratch and try to bite. I lost count of the scratches I received in the first six to ten weeks or so. Things are much better now, but she is still a solitary individual. We discovered in mid-May that her kidneys aren't working too well, so she is on the renal diet food.

Wanda is now, too. She also had to have her thyroid gland removed, both halves of it were hugely enlarged, and now the poor wee soul has to have thyroxine! Trust her to be different; usually there's enough thyroid tissue elsewhere in the body that they don't need any help. The enlarged gland went unnoticed for a couple of years or more because instead of being in her throat, it was deeper in the chest and couldn't be felt on an external exam, so our vet assumed her weight loss and poor coat condition was just one of those things. We do have a fabulous vet, though, he and his wife are both excellent.

She's also having a few neurological problems, but seems to be doing a bit better now. Nowadays she sleeps most of the time, waking to eat and that's about it. While she is still happy and enjoying life, we will do our best to make sure that that continues. The vet is at a loss as to what has happened. Further investigation would be expensive, and pointless as there is nothing they could do to help her. The thyroxine has made quite a difference, though.

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