The Miraculous Mim, Part Two

She meowed all the way home-good thing it's not a far drive.  And you know how crazy sounding a cat's meow can get when they're upset, especially riding in a car.  She kept trying to poke her head out of the cardboard box, so I set the box on the living room floor and let her out.  I can't remember exactly what happened next, but she spent the majority of her time sleeping under my bed.



The vet's office staff had requested that we bring her back the next morning so the primary veterinarian could see her, so I took her back.  I even set my alarm and got there for the first appointment of the day.  Those who know me know what a sacrifice that is.  ;-)  Back in with the cumbersome box, because we can't find our small animal carrier.  More howls.  Me talking to her the entire trip, trying to keep her calm.

The vet was pleased with her appearance. After having read her report from the substitute vet, he was expecting far worse condition.  She was responsive to him, seeking attention, purring at his touch.  Basically she melted everyone's heart with her quick return to an aware, loving, attention seeking cat.  She still had a long way to go though.

They sent us home with a pet carrier that had been donated, and that made it a lot easier to drive her back and forth.  The time between bringing her home Tuesday morning and her return to the vet's office Friday morning is a jumble of memories that I'm having trouble putting in order, so I'm simply going to share what I recall, in no particular order.

We had to drag her out to give her the prescribed eye drops 4 times a day.  Sometimes she held still and one person could put them in, other times it took Tony and I and all four of our hands to hold her little head and get the drops in!  It also gave us a brief view of her facial wounds, but never enough to really see what was happening.  The pads of her paws had been burned when she was shocked, so she probably didn't want to walk any more than necessary

Her eyes were cloudy, the whiskers on the right side of her face were scorched and and curled, her nose was just not right.  I didn't take any pictures of her during this time, I guess because it was hard to get her to stay out from under the bed.

Her left paw, at the wrist, was limp and bent in.  The vet wasn't sure if it was permanent damage or simply still contracted from the electrical shock.  As I'd pet her and scratch her head I noticed bumps getting bigger on her scalp.  Do you see the outline of an M on her forehead?  The bumps seemed to follow it.

She reluctantly ate the expensive cat food, but not until about 24 hours after bringing her home.  I tried soaking her preferred dry food in homemade chicken broth, but she wouldn't eat it. After a couple of days of the expensive cat food, she didn't want any more of that either, so I had to find the aisle in my grocery store that sells baby food.  She liked the chicken and sweet potato, but nothing else.

The bigger problem I noticed was that she wasn't in need of the litter box-at all.  I told the vet's office staff this each day when they called to check on her.  They said as long as she wasn't throwing up, it wasn't time to be concerned yet.  It was Wednesday night, before she finally came out and used the litter box.  It took a while for me to recognize it, but she had a distinctive pattern to her walking as she accommodated the injured paw.

She must have walked toward the outer part of this pole?

Read the first part of her story here.

Thursday night she started licking her paw.  When I got up early Friday morning, she had licked away all of the skin at the wrist.  I called the vet and he got us in right away.  Back into the cat carrier.  More yowls, more pressing her nose against the fabric trying to get out.  By the time we got there, she had peeled away a flap of skin from her nose!  

The vet looked at the paw and said she'd need to have it amputated.  Ugh!  No!  He saw the flap of skin on her nose and trimmed it off.  If only he could just trim the dead stuff away from her wrist...

So the dreaded question, how much do we spend to keep her alive?  Prior to this event happening, I would have said no more than $500.  Since we had spent almost that up to this point, I was very distraught over what to do.  The vet suggested I leave her there and let me go home to discuss it with Tony.  He'd give me an estimate of the costs and then we could call him to give our answer.

Tony said no.  We aren't spending thirteen hundred dollars on a cat!  I understood his perspective, but I couldn't bring myself to deny her the surgery that will keep infection out.  This would be a good time to inform you that the whole arm would have to come off, not at the wrist, but at the shoulder.  The vet said if he amputated just above the wrist, she'd walk on the stump and create callouses that would then slough off and leave her open to infection.  It had to come off at the shoulder and that meant more money.

I pleaded with my eyes, knowing that if God hadn't wanted her to live, she would have died from the shock or the fall.  Yeah, $1300 is a lot of money, but we don't think twice about spending it on a vacation.  I'd just cut back on spending elsewhere.  He still wasn't convinced.  I told him I couldn't call and tell the vet not to do anything, so he did it.  He sat the kids down and told them that bringing her home without the surgery meant she'd be dying soon.  Big tears, in FOUR sets of eyes.  I was writing notes to him while the kids asked questions that he answered.  I reminded him of all the ways she was showing us her will to live.  Yes, the 4 of us got our way (I should say 5, Mim's vote has to be counted!) and Tony called the vet and said he changed his mind, please do the surgery.

Four hours later (he had other things to do first, the surgery didn't take 4 hours) he called with the news that it had gone well and she had come out of sedation quite well, but he wanted to keep her overnight to ensure that everything else was working.  I picked her up late morning Saturday, with her fur shaved from the mid section of the left side of her body, all the way up under her chin, and a row of stitches across where her shoulder used to be.

See how long the incision was?

Cloudy eyes and curled whiskers.

Once home, we let the cat out of the bag (sorry, I had to say it once) and she hobbled down the hallway to my room and crawled under my bed-again.  Only now she was more willing to come out and eat, use the litter box, 'allow' us to pet her and then return to her hidey hole.  She was eating a lot of food!  Lots of repair happening within.

The bumps on the top of her head were definitely burn marks that worked their way out and killed all the skin, almost exactly along the M on her head and that eventually fell off.  The skin on her nose sloughed off again. Her curly whiskers grew out and straightened.  She's missing parts of her nose, but it doesn't seem to be affecting her.

I'm thrilled to report that her personality came through intact and she has regained her playfulness.  She still bats things around on the floor, even if it is with one paw, and she still waits to ambush an unsuspecting passer by.  She gets wiled eyed and frisky every morning, and then repeats again almost every night.  

She's no longer eating huge quantities of food, so I think everything has healed.  We thought she might never want to go outside again, but she tries to trick us into letting her out.  I've caught myself a few times mindlessly reaching for the door handle as she stretches up the door, indicating she wants out.  I do take her out with supervision.  She prefers to do her duty out in the dirt, rather than the litter box.  She likes watching what's going on outside, but I'm not ready to let her have free time outside just yet.

The other day, my youngest was watching her, and she got away because she's too fast for him-even with 3 legs!  We thought she had gone back across the fence, but about 15 minutes later, she showed herself again, and had not gone over the fence.  I don't know if she can remember what happened to her the last time she went across the fence, but I hope she knows enough to not do it ever again!  With one missing leg, I don't think she can outrun predators, or climb trees fast enough to get away.

So, $1700 later, we have the best 3 legged cat in town!  She's valuable to us in more than just financial means.  She brings us joy and she's content in our family.  She still has a distinctive sound as she walks down the hallway, but she can jump onto the bed or couch and back down again as though nothing every happened.  I'd say The End, but I think it's more aptly said, To Be Continued.

Hunkered down between the couch and end table, waiting for the best time to reach out with her remaining front leg and attack me!

The Miraculous Mim! Part One

I've been wanting to write her story for weeks.  I know it needs careful thought to make it the best story, and time to write it properly.  I keep waiting for a time that I can sit down and write it all out and that just isn't happening, so I'm going to start.

It was August 8th.  It was early in the morning-and I mean the kind of early where most normal people should be asleep.  Murphy, our dog, barked that kind of intense bark that says something is wrong.  I leapt out of bed to go let him out to protect the farm animals.  Normally my husband does this, and I can't remember why it was me this time.  Usually, when he barks, there are coyotes off in the distance and he's just trying to show off.  This time, I stood at the back door, listening to...silence.  Not a single sound could be heard.  No distant coyote yips, no strumming emu, no honking geese or quacking ducks.  Nothing.  No rustling sounds in the grass on the other side of our fence-which is Forest Service land.  I called Murphy back in and got back in bed.

Fast forward 5 or 6 hours and Tony, my husband, who was outside doing farm chores pops his head in the door and asks if any of us have seen the cat this morning.  None of us had, but that isn't too unusual, she likes to stay outside at night during the summer.  He said she might be in trouble then, because he could hear distant meows, but couldn't determine where it was coming from.  We all went out to help locate her.  The meows were strong, but the volume was faint.  I walked the direction I thought I heard the sounds coming from, but she wasn't there.  I went back the way I'd come and climbed over the fence to go search for her in the "wild".  Again, I was drawn the same direction as I stood to listen for her.  I got back to the area I'd been, but on the other side of the fence this time and just stopped.  As soon as other noises quieted, I knew.  She was up.  Only she was way further up than we could do anything about.  We have a bunch of mesquite trees behind our fence, which are not very tall.  If she'd been in one of those, Tony could have easily rescued her.  No, she was at the top of the power pole looking eager to get back to the ground, but with no knowledge of how to move in reverse of what she'd done to get to the top in the first place.

This is where my brain starts putting things together.  Whatever Murphy had barked at last night must have scared her up the pole and she'd been there for those 5 or 6 hours.  She probably didn't mind much while it was dark out, but as soon as the sun started coming up, it was HOT!  She wanted down and she wanted down now!  We knew we couldn't do anything on our own, so we called...you guessed it, the fire department.  I didn't want to call 911, because technically it wasn't an emergency, so I looked up the number to the administrative office.The conversation went something like this:
Voice on other end:  C___ V_____ fire administration office, how can I help you?
Me:  Hi, my name is Kelly Cook, and my cat is at the top of the power pole behind our house.  Is that something the fire department can help me with?
Voice:  Um.  Well.  I think so, but you should call the dispatch office to ask and they'll send a truck over if they can.
Me:  Thanks, so just dial 911 or try another number?
Voice:  Here, try this ___ ___ ____
Me:  OK, thanks a lot!

When I called the dispatch number, they weren't even sure they could do anything, but about 10 minutes later, a ladder truck arrived.  I need to pause from the main story here to tell you that our house is on 3 acres of land, and we have a long driveway.  The firemen PARKED ON THE ROAD AND WALKED IN!  Where's the bravery in that??  When they said they couldn't get the truck back here I responded, "So we shouldn't even bother calling you guys if the house catches fire??"  Their response, "We have long fire hoses."  Seriously?  That one still gets me a bit riled up.

They got to the back of our property and shrugged their collective shoulders.  "There's nothing we can do."  "We can't work around live wires."  [I get that one, I didn't want anyone risking their life to save my cat, but she is important to our family, as you'll learn from the end of the story.]  "I promise you, we've never had an animal skeleton at the top of anything high like that."  "When she gets hungry enough, she'll figure out how to get down."  I finally said, "So maybe we should call the power company and they can do something?"  They agreed that it'd be worth a try.

Yep, that's what we did.  Customer service assured us they'd get someone out as soon as they could.

Knowing it'd be a while, we all went back to our tasks.  At least Tony and I did.  The kids watched from a distance to see what happened.  They'd been warned not to hang around where their presence might cause Mim to try to come down on her own.  About 20 minutes later, my oldest son ran in to tell me she was down.  I thought that was good news and went out to see her.  Only it wasn't.  Tony, who'd been working about 200 ft away, heard a loud pop, then heard the kids hollering.  We met outside on our way to see what had happened.  There she was, lying on the ground, about 10 feet away from the pole, panting heavily.  That seemed natural, since it was hot outside and she'd been in the direct sun for a few hours now, but it was more than that.  The whiskers on the right side of her face were singed and curly.  Her claws were out, stuck in that position.  Her tongue appeared to have no life and was hanging out, but stiff.  Tony quickly hopped the fence and worked to release her claws from some wire that used to be part of the Forest Service fence.  At this point, we still hadn't quite realized what happened-we couldn't see the singed whiskers until we brought her in, which we had done to get her cooled off quickly.  We thought she fell while trying to get down, but as we examined her, we realized she'd touched the wrong wire combination while up there and had been shocked and thrown down.

I called the mobile vet we use for our farm animals, no answer.  I called his office number and learned he was out of state at a veterinary conference.  We got into the car to start driving to another vet's office, which I called while Tony drove, to advise them of her condition and request that they be ready to receive her as soon as we got there.  Mim stayed on his lap while he drove because her unnaturally extended claws couldn't be removed from his shirt.

We arrived at the same time another family did, who was bringing in their dog with a swollen face with no known cause.  Because we had called in, they took us in first.  The kids walked back with us, but were quickly sent back to the waiting room because they were getting emotional.  The vet tech took her temperature while the vet looked into her eyes and felt for broken bones and internal damage.  I don't recall the exact temperature reading, but it was several degrees over what'd be considered high for a cat.  They determined that the best way to cool her down would be to move her to the grooming area and run water over her while a fan blew on her as well.  I took over the job of holding the hose on her while the vet and tech proceeded to give her an injection and something by IV.  They then went to the other 'patient'.

It took about 20 minutes to get her temperature down into a high normal range, at which point her breathing also slowed to nearly normal.  The details after that are kind of sketchy in my memory.  the urgency was abated, and she didn't have any internal injuries to address.  It was suggested they keep her for the day to monitor her and then we could bring her home.  What I do remember is the vet who was working on her was subbing for the one that is normally there-because he was at the same conference.  They shouldn't be allowed to leave at the same time!

Her prognosis was a guarded 'good'.  During the exam we could see that her right ear was bent back, as it would be if she was mad and hissing at some unseen enemy, and her front left leg was contracted and bent in.  Her tongue was curled up at the end and she had a horseshoe shaped burn on it.  Only time would tell what healing could happen there.

When the vet's office staff called to let us know we could pick her up, we also learned that she'd need steroidal eye drops four times a day to ward off cataracts.  She needed to be on a nutritionally dense diet because it'd be hard for her to eat and she needed a lot of good quality calories to heal.  Of course, she is the first picky cat I've ever owned, and she only likes her ocean delights dry food we get from Trader Joe's.  Even when she smells the fresh cow or goat milk after we've milked the animals, she'll meow as though she's really interested in getting some, but she drinks about 3 drops and walks away.

I paid the bill, adding in 4 cans of expensive cat food for her healing.  Suggestions were made about soaking her dry food in broth to soften it and make it more nutritious, offering her cooked meat, giving her baby food, etc.  All the employees in the office were pleased with her condition and surprised by how loving she was-especially after what she'd been through.

Stay tuned for part two, coming soon....
If you just can't wait to read more, check out this story about Purrsy.

Spring

10 of these

Plus 19 of these

Plus 10 of these

Plus 28 of these

3 of these

and 3 of these

Plus 5 of these

1 of these

1 of these

Plus 3 of these

And this guy

Equals ONE happy farm!

Is Everybody Comfy & Cozy?

This was taken last February.  Unfortunately we don't have the cute cat behind his knees anymore.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tidbits

My first thought for a blog today was to share that our pet bunny, Rabbit Redford, has learned how to get into the house using the pet door.  Not sure what to do about that!  I've got the door closed off for now, hoping he'll forget that he can do it, but I'm not hopeful that would work.  Silly rabbit.

Then I found this site with printables I like, so I wanted to share it.  There are vintage looking calendar pages also.  The link takes you to a pretty page to record an inventory of food you already have at home.  I'm going to put one on the door of the freezer with quantities written next to it, so when DH brings something home he can cross thru the highest number to know we now have this many left.  For instance, fresh bacon: 10 9 8 7, etc, where he crosses of #10 the first time he takes one out and we know there are 9 left. 

I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival of my dairy cultures by mail.  I ordered quite a variety for cheesemaking, plus sweet yogurt, buttermilk, and sour cream.  Can't wait to try them all!

It's cold in my neck of the woods today-or at least cool.  I'm wearing long sleeves in the house.  Nice to know the heat isn't here to stay.

We planted grape vines yesterday, thanks to a generous gift from Polly at Polly's Path blog.  Some day they will be a beautiful edible border along the north side of our property line.

Got a little miffed while reading this story.  I think she's a little off base, but entitled to her opinion.  The prevalence of historical revisionism is partly to blame, I think.

So that's what's on my mind today.  Thoughts?

Spring 2010

I love reading other people's blogs, especially those who have common interests, and many have been writing about Spring. I think living in central AZ I take spring for granted, but I do love this time of year! It's warm enough to be outside in shorts during the day, but still cool enough to need a jacket and long pants at night. We don't get snow here, so it's not a matter of being glad it's gone, it's just a welcome change of season. I decided to take some pictures of what spring looks like around here, because I have some friends in the midwest and east coast that are still dealing with snow. Hop on a plane and come visit!

Click here to view these pictures larger

PurrShe

Yeah, you read that right.  Purrsy is a girl!  I'm trying to remember what made me think she was a boy when this little bundle of purrs showed up at our house, but I'm almost sure we could see little testicles.  Just before bedtime last night he was acting strange-something was bothering him.  He would purr thru a stunted meow over and over again and then flop on the ground.  Thinking this cat is a boy I wondered if he might have some blockage in the urinary tract from eating mostly dry cat food.  He never winced from pain when petting him or touching his entire body though.  We gave him a can of moist food and a little milk, neither of which he really wanted, and tried to comfort him.  Shortly after that he decided to go outside and we thought it was over.  Nope.  He came in later in the night still "upset" and me not able to calm him.  Finally around 5AM Tony said we needed to take him to the vet.  I told him there was a 24 hour vet on Main St, should we take him now?  So Tony took him, only to return about 30 minutes later with the news that Purrsy is a girl and is in heat!  I thought the symptoms looked like heat, but quickly dismissed it because we thought she was a boy.  How will we ever be successful farmers if we can't tell the sex of a kitten?!

Purrsy's Injury

My poor kitty is limping! I noticed it yesterday afternoon-he's not using his back right leg. The bone doesn't feel broken and there's no break in the skin. Nothing look unusual, so what's wrong? After several hours I finally figured it out. A couple of days ago I rolled my desk chair back to stand up and he squealed and ran off. Since he ran off I figured I must have just got his tail. I certainly didn't roll over anything big enough to notice, so why is he limping? I'm wondering if I got some skin around the top of the wheel and in the caster and just bruised him well...
He still goes out thru the cat door to do his duty, and can jump off the bed, so he's not hurt too badly. He always comes when Rags (one of our older cats) meows, and today was no different, so I think he's gonna be alright!

Purrsy

Update (10/29/16).  First, when I look at the picture of him drinking goat milk, I'm reminded how small he was!  That's just a standard pie pan and his face is so little!  Second, he turned out to be a she.  Imagine my husband's embarrassment when we took "him" to the 24 hour emergency vet because he was bleeding...Third, he's no longer with us.  He disappeared into the wild, never to be seen again.  Fourth, she looked a lot like Mim.  

Purrsy is our youngest cat. We're not sure exactly how old he is because of how he came to be part of our family. It started last summer-one of our dogs was not faring well. She was 14 years old and had stopped eating. I tried giving her cooked rice, goat milk, anything to get her to eat. She wasn't interested-before you start feeling too sorry for me, I "married" this dog-they [her and her sister] are Tony's dogs. Anyway, it was time to do the deed. She couldn't stand up to go outside and we weren't about to diaper a dog! She lived a fun, full life and her time had come. That was July 21st.

July 22nd I was starting the car to take my son to preschool and heard a noise. It sounded like a meow, but could have also been a far off bird squawking. Upon further investigation I saw TINY kitten in our bushes.

Its kinda like a Where's Waldo picture-you have to look to see him. I got back into the car and took my son to preschool without mentioning what I saw. Called Tony on the way home and he already knew why I was calling. The kitten had been on the door step when he left for work at 530 that morning. He said we needed to find a home for him. He said he didn't want 3 cats. I didn't say anything.
I posted an ad on http://www.craigslist.com/ and called a few friends to find this little guy a home. In the mean time I gave him some goat milk. He had the LOUDEST purr I've ever heard, especially coming from such a small critter! I kept checking on him throughout the next couple of days. He was so small he'd be easy prey for a hawk or owl to come get him.
The mystery is how he got there in the first place. We live on a busy road, it'd be hard for him to not get hit by a car. I also think it's quite odd that he showed up the day after Jazmine's last day on earth.
Tony saw how much attention I was paying to the cat and said something to the affect that I was getting awfully close to a cat that I didn't plan to keep. I told him that was his plan, not mine! Shortly after that he realized he had made the decision to give him away without asking how I felt. When he saw how much I liked the kitten he said we could keep him. That's when we named him Purrsy. All you have to do is make eye contact with him and he starts purring!
He's really made a place for himself in our family. He terrorizes the older cats, who just hiss at him when they've had enough. He was afraid of Nala at first (the dog we still have) but now attacks her tail. He sleeps on the bed with us and likes to lay in our laps when we're typing. He's got really soft fur.
I guess he's about 7 months old. He had to be at least a month when he got here, even though he was so small. He started eating dry cat food right away. He doesn't bother the chickens, and as far as I know, they don't bother him!
He likes to hide under the end of my bed and attack my foot as I walk by. He thinks he's sneaky, I just think he's cute!

Update (10/29/16).  First, when I look at the picture of him drinking goat milk, I'm reminded how small he was!  That's just a standard pie pan and his face is so little!  Second, he turned out to be a she.  Imagine my husband's embarrassment when we took "him" to the 24 hour emergency vet because he was bleeding...Third, he's no longer with us.  He disappeared into the wild, never to be seen again.  Fourth, she looked a lot like Mim.