Nurse Maid

So I had just made my final payment on my credit card, making me officially debt free last Wednesday.

It had taken years...but I did it.

Then the cat threw up.

He had been under the weather for two days, but he was stressed and believe it or not, our cats get gastritis.

So I was letting it run its course.

Well this event, was more then vomit, it was violent vomit. He stopped eating and drinking so by Saturday I found myself in the office of a new highly recommended vet. They took his temp, looked him over, felt his belly...and then she said she felt a mass.

My heart sank...a mass.

I was beside myself, and worked hard to contain my emotions.

 I had not slept in several days, as I jump out of bed every time the kitty gets sick.

As I want to be there to console it but also to clean up the acidic mess before it leaves a stain.

 (ok I am a little OCD about it)

Well we decided we'd take an Xray and see what there was to see:

Well when they pulled up the digital image I froze...then said to myself, ok...um maybe that is a marker.

( like when you feel a lump and they scan the area around where you feel the lump. )

Turns out this object was inside the cat...not outside the cat.

So we packed ourselves up and rushed off to the ER for emergency surgery...

We had been to this ER before, in fact 4 years earlier (almost to the day!) we were there with our other cat who was in total renal failure because he had been eating poisoned pet food (remember that pet food thing where animals all died or got sick from melamine in the food. We had one of them....well two of them, but only one was in total renal failure. In order to save the life of that one we rushed him to the very hospital we were at again. They saved him and we had months of recovery with both...now he is a healthy fat cat four years later.) So there was zero hesitation getting Xander to this hospital.

Hubby joined me shortly there after and we checked him in for emergency surgery.

We are not sure how he ate this item, or what it was, or how big it was, but it was killing him so it had to be removed and pronto!

While he was getting his bloodwork and getting settled into the ICU we were filling out forms and DNR's (which is really a practice in torture: do you want us to preform CPR, crack his chest and massage his heart or just let him die a natural death) I made hubby sign that one, it was too much to think about.

Then the estimate, timeline, recovery, risks,...another test of love.

 I asked to see Xander before all the tests started...they lead me in and we chatted and kissed.

His instructions were simple from me: needed to behave and wake up from surgery.

We waited at home for results as there was nothing we could do waiting at the hospital. I also had promised my niece to make her birthday cake for her party the next day, so I had a good distraction tool while we waited for results.

He turned out to be a healthy cat with a hardware nut (like nut and bolt) in his small intestine.

The surgeon removed it and we have it as a keepsake. 

Xander spent three days in the ICU with his own private nurse before  

I was able to take him home Tuesday evening

and

haven't slept since; as he has a list of "do-not's" the length of a dictionary.

He is recovering well...slowly but well.

I am thankful...very very thankful.

Xander started his life off as a forgotten kitten dumped in the back of a market in Los Olivos. He was on deaths door for the first two months of his life. We adopted him at four months old and were tasked with "fattening him up" so for the first three weeks he lived with us we sat next to him and made sure he ate.

7 years later we are doing the same thing.

He is my sweet little puma, indoor tiger or wild little beastie.

He is stubborn, smart and quick. 

He is our companion, our comfort, our entertainment.

In some ways our child...

though I am always frightened to sound like a crazy childless cat lady

He is due to get his staples out on Tuesday...this morning while he had his e-collar(big cone around his head) off to eat and groom

He pulled one staple out.

He now has to keep his e-collar on until Tuesday, for his safety and our sanity.

Until then I gladly carry on being his personal nurse maid.