the good, the bad, and the kitty

Happy New Year, everyone.

As 2008 came to a close and 2009 began, I realized that this was both the worst and best New Years of my life.

As many of you know, my beautiful kitty Clementine (left) had emergency surgery on New Year’s Eve. At about 2am the night before, I woke to the sound of her vomiting so I got up to check on her. She was laying in front of one of the heat vents, which is nothing unusual, but when I picked her up she was as limp as a rag doll. I took her to bed with me and put her on my pillow (her favorite place to sleep) and stayed awake with her the rest of the night. She slept, but I could still tell that something was wrong.

She woke about 6:30 and went into the kitchen, and I dozed off then. About an hour later, I woke again to hear her yowling so I jumped out of bed and ran into the kitchen. She was at her water dish trying to get a drink but she was so weak she couldn’t stand. I took her to the vet here in town, but after a round of X-rays and tests, they sent me to the Eastern Iowa Veterinary Specialty Center in Cedar Rapids. Clem’s X-rays showed air in her gastrointestinal tract, which the vet said is a sign of an obstruction. Nothing showed up on the X-ray as being a possible obstruction, but something told me that’s what it was.

The folks at the EIVSC took her in and performed surgery on her after evaluating her case. The surgeon extracted a small bundle of metal wire from her small intestine. Goodness knows where she got it, or what it even was. Ryan thought it looked a little like a twistie-tie. Seeing the harsh piece of metal that had been inside my kitty made me sick…but the important thing is that it’s out.

The vets were a little afraid that she wouldn’t survive surgery, because she was extremely dehydrated and her blood pressure and body temperature were very low. They wondered how she would respond to anesthesia, but once the first hour of her surgery went by I knew she had made it past that. The vet called about 4 hours after the surgery began, and said that she had pulled through just fine and was recovering. I knew she wasn’t completely out of the woods yet, but the big part was over.

The vet called again the next morning and said that Clementine was recovering well – better, in fact, than they expected. We went up to visit her that day and when they brought her into the visitation room I immediately knew she was going to be fine. Her little head was perked up and her eyes were bright, and she started nuzzling us and purring loudly as soon as the vet tech set her down. She still had to spend another night in the hospital, but we brought her home Friday and she has been astounding all of us with how wonderfully she’s recovering and how amazingly strong she is.

For instance – Friday night, about an hour or two after we got her home, Ryan was playing with Oliver and Clementine came trotting up wanting to play too! 48 hours prior, she was literally under the knife, but now she wanted to get back into the game and play.

It’s been a bit challenging to keep her from jumping on things, and we have caught her a couple of times trying to tug at her stitches. She pulled out a couple of them, but the vets said that as long as the incision (which is about 6 inches long, with 15 stitches) didn’t open up and it isn’t red or inflamed, that she should be fine. I am concerned about her tugging at more stitches and feeling like I have to keep a constant eye on her is a bit exhausting, but it’s the least I can do for my little superkitty who survived the most traumatic and trying ordeal of her life. She is my kitten, and I will do anything I need to to make sure she is my kitten for many, many more years. Life is fragile. But I’m beginning to think that with some hope and love, it’s not as fragile as we sometimes think it is.

This event has inspired me to begin a nonprofit organization that will provide money for people who find themselves in a situation like this. Thankfully, I had a credit card to pay for Clementine’s surgery, but I know there are people out there who don’t have that and don’t have the money they need to save their pets. Nobody should have to lose a member of their family because they can’t afford to pay for medical care. I will make it my mission to see that nobody does.

Three cheers for Clementine, the strongest little kitty I know!

[If anybody is interested in being part of my organization, which is tentatively named Clementine's Coin Purrrse (get it?), please get in touch with me. Obviously it's in the very preliminary stages so far but I would still be interested in gathering the names of folks who would be dedicated to the cause.]