Cat adventure? Christmas miracle...

Christmas eve day, 2014.

No, I have not taken Hobbes "for a drag." That is what we call attempts to "walk" our old kitty. He is not interested and will not walk on-leash. He collapses and you end up dragging him. It isn't pretty or fun, so we stopped trying.

No, our adventure is one of the veterinary kind.

YC though Hobbes was looking odd (eyes too dilated) and behaving weirdly. He is a weird cat, but when he allowed her to hold him (for some reason Hobbes is not fond of YC) we knew there was a problem.

The vet found an ear infection. Since Hobbes is hard to manage, that meant anesthesia. And since he was going to be asleep, we decided to clean his teeth as well.

So Hobbes came home last Thursday (only 5 days ago) with clean teeth and clean ears (packed with some kind of super antibiotic). But he has had the devil of a time shaking the anesthetic.

I am unused to babying a pet (since we adopted an all too young Stripey many years ago). I am "pushing" water from a syringe 9eye dropped0. I must carry the poor boy to the litter box (oh, the indignity of it all!). And I must watch him struggle to walk or even shake his head without falling over. Oh, and most of the last few days he has spent sitting in my lap, often asleep.

He has started to "come back" over the last day or two. He tried to drink from a bowl of water. He groomed himself after eating this morning (AT 3 A.M.!). He tried to get to the litter box on his own (but I figured it out before an accident and got him there).

He is getting a little less wobbly, but v e r y  s l o w l y. It reminds me of the times I have sat in a hospital with elderly folks on ventilators...you measure progress so slowly that the health care people think you are mad. [hope no one is offended]

DH and I could not stand it yesterday and took him back to the vet. A "visiting" vet told us to be patient. He wrote in Hobbes' chart that he cannot have anesthesia ever again.  He handed me two plastic syringes (sans needles) and said to push water. He said it COULD take two weeks and that he knew it would not be fun for the one who had to baby him, but just "try and keep him from hurting himself."

No, THAT is not what he meant. But a Hobbes this wobbly could fall from a chair or try to jump and get hurt. He has, in fact, already tried a couple of jumps that were not too successful.

So, time will tell.

Christmas morning - early

OK. I woke up at 5 minutes to midnight. I still had to give Hobbes his next water. There would be no midnight mass this year. Of course, I believe God appreciate us taking care of his helpless creatures and so tried to do so graciously. Then we tried the litter box again. [I have gotten fairly good at recognizing when Hobbes is not interested and when he wants me to be patient] I held him steady (or he will shake his head and roll himself right out of the box) and we had a Christmas miracle.

Through my early morning brain fog I remembered how many systems take time to respond after anesthesia. Hobbes scratched some litter and I filed away this improvement to share with DH. I did not have to wait long as DH was awake when I carried the cat upstairs to bed.

We all slept until 7, when we were awakened by Hobbsie boy falling out of the bed (don't worry, there was a soft pile of magazines to break his fall). He seemed just a little better, fall not withstanding.

Today has been a day of a few scheduled events - a gift exchange, Christmas dinner, and Skype with the kids. Hobbes slept through most of it. He is moving around more and so has worn himself out.

Hope tomorrow brings continued improvement.

Christmas day + one

Today he managed to "catch" himself to keep from falling. He also tried to fight me - feisty boy. Improvement continues slowly.

This moment he is sleeping in my lap and purring. He doesn't care that I am trying to type.

Epilogue - We are now seven months past this medical "adventure." Hobbes is still "not himself," but has good quality of life. He eats, sleeps and plays. He can climb and jump again. He wanders the house unless we lock him out of rooms. The main change we notice is an almost constant begging to be fed and inability to hear anything. He notices vibrations though. So our un-cat is still here and ours, but different. We will avoid any invasive any-kind-of treatment for him and for our others. This was more than just a bad reaction to anesthesia.

Balancing on edge of the recliner.

Falling asleep....zzzzz