[Magdalen] OT: Kitty tales

[Marion Thompson]

Wierd, but wonderful.  Like people who are blind or deaf for years and 
then, Shazam, their sense is restored.

Marion, a pilgrim


On 12/7/2017 5:35 PM, cady soukup wrote:
> 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
>