[Magdalen] OT: Kitty tales

[cady soukup]

A strange thing happened to one of our kitties,

We currently have 4 rescued kitties, one from the Culpeper County
Animal Rescue group (Spazz, 16+ years old), 2 from our road (found in
a plastic trash bag, sisters; Juno & Saejo, both about 11), and 1 from
the Fauquier County Animal Rescue shelter (Tribble, 2 years old and
the only male). Last year we lost Nirala, son Michael's much beloved
and very intelligent cat, to a progressive neurological problem.

About 2 years ago, both Nirala and Saejo showed similar neurological
problems, Saejo more than Nirala. They would get disoriented,
"startle" so severely that they would fall off perches and into
garbage cans. Saejo learned to go completely limp as she fell, rarely
injuring herself. After Nirala died, Saejo started to navigate the
house as though she couldn't see - walking into a wall or furniture,
and then moving along the wall to where she wanted to go. She refused
to go up stairs. She walked like a toddler with a full diaper, lifting
her rear legs up and out for each step. I created customized cardboard
boxes to hold the cat dishes on the table where the cats get fed (out
of the way of the 100+ lb malamute dog who much prefers catfood to
dogfood) so the "startles" wouldn't push the dishes onto the floor
after it happened one-too-many times.

When Saejo would sit on our laps, she was so very happy that she would
get all 4 paws going in full-out-claw-mode so that our laps resembled
pincushions. I developed a habit of "armoring" my lap with several
thick folds of woolen blanket just to handle her happiness. She was
happiest when curled into a ball in my left arm, back down,
feet-tail-&-head up, purring and clawing at the air. If I put my hand
over her head, it gave her the security she craved and she would go to
sleep (halting her clawing, which was the point as far as I was
concerned!).

Not much longer than a month ago, daughter Sam decided to de-clutter
the living room, moving the hundreds of DVDs into a semblance of order
and getting rid of the aging tape and video cassettes. Saejo went into
hiding so deep that we could not find her. Being experienced in the
Ways of Cats, we left her alone, and provided food and water and a
litter box near where we thought we heard her (the pipe organ console,
of course). The room was total chaos for almost 3 days with dust,
clutter, garbage, and noise. Saejo didn't appear for about 7 days. I
thought we would have to dismantle the pipe organ console to get to
her body for burial.

Then, about a week after The Major Living-Room Disaster (from Saejo's
point of view), she reappeared. She now walks normally, her startles
happen less and less, she no longer claws our laps, she navigates the
house normally, she is back to her loving, if somewhat eccentric self.
She continues to improve. She is even playing again with her sister
(they were never close buddies) and to play-fight with Tribble (who
has more energy than all 3 of his older "sisters" - my husband claims
that when he comes up to one of his sisters, or us, and meows sweetly,
it really means "I'm about to f*k with you!"!).

So - what just happened?

Happy to believe in miracles, even of the feline kind -

Cady