Lucky Kitty

She showed up at our garage door a week ago today hungry and wobbling. When I first saw her she was all fluffed up and hissing at the dogs, was noticeably emaciated and was not able to walk a straight line if her life depended on it. Taken aback by her condition I scooped her up, threw her in the bathroom and called the vet. My first thought was rabies but the vet felt this was not the case so that was a relief.

As is the case with most things in life this visitor showed up at a most inconvenient time. I was set to leave for a week very early the next morning. I fed her and she ravenously ate all of the canned food and then screamed for more while flailing around the bathroom. I fed her some more. She licked the plate clean and then she curled up to take a nap on the little rug. After entering the bathroom several times without her noticing it was also clear that in addition to her wobble she was also deaf.

Concerned that she may be infectious to the other cats I instructed Ken to keep her in the bathroom, feed and water her for the next week and wash his hands before he touched the other cats and that I would take her to the vet when I returned. He took great care of her even with the horrible diarrhea that she had. He is a good husband.

So today she went to vet and has worms, giardia and a bacterial overgrowth that is all contributing to her very runny stool. The good news is that the vet thinks that she is not contagious and contracted distemper either in utero or as a kitten and survived (no easy feat) which has caused the damage to her cerebellum and her deafness.

She looks to be around 6 months old and is officially a girl. I hadn't gotten a good look at her until today and the vet confirmed that she is indeed female. What a little trooper she is. She survived distemper, was able to avoid the coyotes even though completely deaf, and persisted until she found some people willing to help her out of a tough situation.