Well, I've Acquired Another Owner

Arthur Shapiro wrote:
In article , Takayuki wrote:

Poor thing. I'm worried now that it's not just a plain wound, but an
advanced cancer. I think we both know from experience that those are
wound-like. Did she come with a name?

That's what I guess we'll find out from the remote vet, who had said that the
biopsy results would take three to five days from Wednesday. So I very well
could know before the Monday afternoon appointment with the surgeon.

She must feel a lot better, however: she's eating her FOURTH bowl of food as I
type! And this is real canned cat food, not the baby food. I guess, given
her poor teeth, that she won't really want dry food.

Maybe I should have taken a picture of the disaster while she was
unbandaged...you would swear it was a Photoshopped fraud.

I'm sorry to somewhat monopolize the newsgroup; I guess this is one
highly-irregular case worthy of folks' attention.

Art

This discussion is what the newsgroup is for -- talk about and help our
pets when we need to. Have her kidneys started working? You said she
let loose at the Vets but it was not clear what she let loose.
MLB

post away, if we can only support your efforts by reading i am sure we all
feel we want to do that, Lee

--
Have a great day
"Arthur Shapiro" wrote in message
...
In article , Takayuki
wrote:

Poor thing. I'm worried now that it's not just a plain wound, but an
advanced cancer. I think we both know from experience that those are
wound-like. Did she come with a name?

That's what I guess we'll find out from the remote vet, who had said that
the
biopsy results would take three to five days from Wednesday. So I very
well
could know before the Monday afternoon appointment with the surgeon.

She must feel a lot better, however: she's eating her FOURTH bowl of food
as I
type! And this is real canned cat food, not the baby food. I guess,
given
her poor teeth, that she won't really want dry food.

Maybe I should have taken a picture of the disaster while she was
unbandaged...you would swear it was a Photoshopped fraud.

I'm sorry to somewhat monopolize the newsgroup; I guess this is one
highly-irregular case worthy of folks' attention.

Art

(Arthur Shapiro) wrote:

In article , Takayuki wrote:

Poor thing. I'm worried now that it's not just a plain wound, but an
advanced cancer. I think we both know from experience that those are
wound-like. Did she come with a name?

That's what I guess we'll find out from the remote vet, who had said that the
biopsy results would take three to five days from Wednesday. So I very well
could know before the Monday afternoon appointment with the surgeon.

She must feel a lot better, however: she's eating her FOURTH bowl of food as I
type! And this is real canned cat food, not the baby food. I guess, given
her poor teeth, that she won't really want dry food.

Maybe I should have taken a picture of the disaster while she was
unbandaged...you would swear it was a Photoshopped fraud.

I'm sorry to somewhat monopolize the newsgroup; I guess this is one
highly-irregular case worthy of folks' attention.

It's good that she's eating, but it's very worrying. I don't think
that an oncologist can irradiate her entire head, and then there's
chemo. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself, but this brings me back to
the days not long ago when I had a cat with incurable cancer, and my
whole life was about getting her treatments and drugs.

On Dec 19, 9:17*pm, (Arthur Shapiro) wrote:
In article , Takayuki wrote:
Poor thing. *I'm worried now that it's not just a plain wound, but an
advanced cancer. *I think we both know from experience that those are
wound-like. *Did she come with a name?

That's what I guess we'll find out from the remote vet, who had said that the
biopsy results would take three to five days from Wednesday. *So I very well
could know before the Monday afternoon appointment with the surgeon.

She must feel a lot better, however: she's eating her FOURTH bowl of food as I
type! *And this is real canned cat food, not the baby food. *I guess, given
her poor teeth, that she won't really want dry food.

Maybe I should have taken a picture of the disaster while she was
unbandaged...you would swear it was a Photoshopped fraud.

I'm sorry to somewhat monopolize the newsgroup; I guess this is one
highly-irregular case worthy of folks' attention.

Art

I'm so sorry the kitty's condition sounds so much worse than expected.
It sounds
also like you have some rough times and tough decisions ahead. You're
still
my hero, no matter what the decisions or outcome. You stepped up to
the
plate and took responsibility to be this poor little thing's advocate,
and took
responsibility for a "problem" that wasn't yours. I'm really not a
gusher by
nature, but this story really touched me.

Sherry

In article , MLB wrote:

This discussion is what the newsgroup is for -- talk about and help our
pets when we need to. Have her kidneys started working?

Yep, although once again not here. She might well not know what a cat box is,
so my bed might be a victim tonight.

She's been in the carrier since being taken home 6 1/2 hours ago, but is
happily eating away - four bowls of food so far as I may have already
mentioned. And purring away at the slightest provocation.

Another post asked about her name - no, we don't know what it is.

Art

Sherry wrote:
I'm so sorry the kitty's condition sounds so much worse than expected. It sounds
also like you have some rough times and tough decisions ahead. You're still
my hero, no matter what the decisions or outcome. You stepped up to the
plate and took responsibility to be this poor little thing's advocate, and took
responsibility for a "problem" that wasn't yours. I'm really not a gusher by
nature, but this story really touched me.

Ditto. I don't want to be too down, so I'll just say that I'm really
hoping very hard for the best, as the poor nameless cat seems to have
a beautiful cat-soul and deserves to get to know her new family. But
no one knows what her situation is, and it's out of even Arthur's
hands what her prognosis might be.

"Arthur Shapiro" wrote in message
...
In article
,
Sherry wrote:
This is the best post I've read all year.
I'd
love to see a picture of her.

Well, I'd love to see what she looks like too! With this totally-bandaged
head, I really have no idea. I'll get a picture when the far-off vet
removes
the bandages.

I'm getting really worried about her not using the cat box for a day and a
half now, and don't know if I should contact the remote vet, take her into
my
local vet, or just wait it out. I'll leave the cat box on my bed tonight
as
she has absolutely no interest in leaving the bed.

This cat is really, really thin; bones around the back by the tail are
easy to
feel. But she's still purring up a storm, and I am encouraged that she
loves
baby food. It's hard to find that stuff all-meat, but I got several jars
of
Gerber, both chicken and turkey.

Art


You are wonderful for adopting this little kitty. However, I would not wait
any longer before contacting a vet since she hasn't used a litterbox. You
said she shows no interest in getting off the bed, so it's unlikely that she
is urinating in "inappropriate" places, and UTI can become deadly very
quickly. My preference would be to get her to a vet who is already familiar
with her problems, but any competent vet would be better than waiting it
out.

Please keep us updated.

MaryL

"Arthur Shapiro" wrote in message
...
She didn't use the box all night, but once again bolted down baby food and
picked at a little of the regular Friskies canned food I gave the others.

I had my wife call the far-off vet while I was out with the bicycle club
this
morning, and we have an appointment down here with my local vet in a half
hour. The records will be transferred (if I understood her correctly on
the
phone) so I might not ever meet that original vet. This will probably be
upsetting to the other lady, although she'd certainly be welcome to come
down.
But I'm not going to tell them anything until I learn more.

I'm a nervous wreck right now.

MLB, nothing on Milo. Although Thursday, the day I got this new cat, I
opened
the back door after the 7 AM breakfast feeding, to let Giovanni out, and I
swear there was a huge, fluffy black cat with a magnificent plumed tail.
It
looked like Milo in his prime, and he immediately ran under the bushes. I
couldn't see him in the dense growth, called for him, and never saw
anything.
Oddly, Giovanni didn't go into the area to attack. Was I imagining
things???

The new cat has jumped down from the bed and is sleeping adjacent to it in
the
bottom shelf of a book case.

Art


Ooops! I responded to your earlier post before I read this. I'm really
glad that you are taking her to a vet. You have done a wonderful thing by
adopting this poor kitty, and I hope things start looking up *very* soon.

MaryL

"Arthur Shapiro" wrote in message
...
With the loss of two of my cats this year, Milo and Thalia, I was down to
three for the first time in many years. Three is actually a pretty good
number - convenient and not overwhelming. But...

Nine days ago I answered a CraigsList ad for a kitty, described as
desperately
needing medical care for a badly wounded ear. It turned out that the
person
placing the ad didn't have the cat - it was for a friend. It took several
days of "back and forth" emails before she was satisfied that I wasn't
some
laboratory looking for an experimental victim kitty. She was really
suspicious when I mentioned that I had one cat (Banana Simian) who had to
have
her ears removed due to skin cancer, and figured I was really blowing
smoke.

My personal web site, with many pictures to prove it, immediately
convinced
her.

So I ended up talking with both people. The lady with the cat is recently
homeless and was living with the cat in her mother's car! And today
(Friday)
she has to return the car, and apparently will be out on the streets. She
somehow raised $350 toward the cat's treatment at a
relatively-inconvenient
(to me) vet hospital. I told her to return the money and I'd handle
things at
my own vets. She was really reluctant to do that after arranging all
these
things, so I agreed.

So before even seeing the cat, I paid for the balance necessary to have
the
cat's one ear removed. Apparently it was completely ignored, living
outside,
and "owned" by the ex-wife of a friend. They stole the cat, in desperate
condition with the probable skin cancer, and the lady was devoting all her
time to trying to care for it. She was totally devoted to the kitty.

Anyway, I got the kitty yesterday, and let's just say it was a pretty
traumatic scene with the poor lady in tears as she handed the cat to me.
She
knows it will get the best possible medical care and of course we hope
that
it isn't too late. I won't have the biopsy results until early next week.
She asked if she could be at that followup appointment; of course I had no
objection. I have been given antibiotics to give her, and had a couple
pain
medicine syringes left over from another incident and gave her one this
morning. I figured it couldn't hurt.

So I've got a new cat, a pretty little girl, mostly white with a tabby
tail
and a large tabby patch on her sides. Her head is completly bandaged,
like a
mummy, with the eyes, nose, and mouth visible.

She ate a little people tuna when I got her home midday yesterday, and
then
rejected all food until this morning. After rejecting the morning food, I
gave her the last jar of baby food left over from Thalia's last days in
October, and she absolutely wolfed it down. Thank goodness - she's quite
scrawny. She still hasn't used the cat box in 22 hours. I put her in one
box last evening, and she just went to sleep in it. Right now, she's on
the
bed with a cat box on the bed, and my wife says (I'm at work) that she's
looking more alert and looking outside.

She's quite a purrer. I want to name her Holyfield but my wife is having
a
fit.

Art


I think it's very admirable you acquired another owner. Especially one with
known health problems. Purrs that things work out well with you and the
kitty!

Jill

Didn't Nox after the surgery to correct her spay- go 3 days without
using her box at all?


Yes and that was not good. She was constipated, and needed an enema
to be able to go - the vet suspected that due to the pain from (rare)
spay complications, she didn't want to move her bowels, then it dried
out and she COULDN'T move them because the dry stuff acted like a
plug. She had to have a second enema two days later and be fed on a
high fibre diet and get painkillers so pooping wasn't so uncomfortable
for her. Fortunately once she got the pumpkin-(fibre) laced food into
her system she began to go as normal.

Bright Blessings for your new kitty.

--Fil