Val is Very Sick

I thought Valentino just had a cold when he began sneezing last week. There was no discharge however, not even from his eyes, so I wondered what kind of strange cold this might be that he was catching.

Two days ago, he really took a turn and not for the good.

He began snarfling like goop was running down the back of his throat. He also began to have the familiar bloody discharge dripping from the sides of his mouth. He couldn't breath from congestion. I began giving him antihistamines to try to dry him up so he could rest at least a little. I put him on a heating pad and began giving him antibiotics and fluids beginning very early yesterday morning, before leaving for the clinic.

Today he was even worse, lethargic, dehydrated with bloody drool. I think perhaps one or more of the teeth left became infected in his gums and maybe the infection then got into his sinuses and body. I don't even know that he will survive, since I caught it late, not suspecting it was tooth related.

That's just a guess though.

I'm doing all I can, steaming him with a vaporizer, giving him fluids, antibiotics and the antihistamine.

I can't take him to an emergency vet. I don't have that kind of money. I e-mailed my vet, and sent her a photo, and told her I'd call Monday morning. That's because she's so busy I don't know that he can get in Monday. If not, I'll have to find somewhere to get him in and somehow find the money to do it.

Valentino came to me almost exactly one year ago. Tenants over on 34th street had called saying there was a "rabid" cat wandering around foaming at the mouth. I finally relented and went to see what they were talking about.

Valentino has been with me ever since. The foaming at the mouth was wads of pus from bad teeth. He also had old injuries to joints, an old front leg break, burns on his front legs and flea dermatitis. He had severe ear mites and fleas the size of small beetles roamed his body.

Val's mellow kind and grateful nature however can just take your breath away, in the face of all he has been through.

I named him Valentino. After all, I rescued him on Valentine's Day.

On a lighter note---

Sam on the Can

Self-satisfied Miss Daisy!

I have to tell another story. The night I was picking up cats, Thursday night, prior to taking them Friday to be fixed, I went to the home where I was to pick up three boys, at the appointed time. However, nobody was home. I was upset. How dare they. I'd talked to them just the night before.

I needed to complain to someone, about being stood up on the cat pick up and now being short three cats, for my ten reservations.

I pulled in at a friends place. She heard my complaint and my need to find three more cats now, so as not to let the clinic down. Then she said, "Well, I'm feeding a new one. He's just outside." I followed her out, but the cat has vanished. I asked her to tell me what the cat looked like. She said a gray faced Siamese, meaning a blue point.

I instantly remembered posts on craigslist about a lost blue point. I also remembered seeing fliers for the lost blue point a block away, when getting four girls fixed on that block a couple weeks ago. I told her "I bet that's the lost blue point" and suggested we walk down and get the number off the flier. So we did.

My friend called the number and got an answer. The woman came right over. I had left by this time, needing to go round up alternate cats. April called me later to say the woman almost immediately was able to call "Skippy" out of the bushes. He'd been missing for six weeks.

Later that evening, close to 8:00 p.m., three hours after I was originally supposed to pick up the three boys at one house, I stopped by there again, in hopes they might now be home. They were. I loaded them up.

If they had been home earlier, I would not then have gone to my friends place to whine and to ask her if she knew of other cats. She would not have told me about the new cat she was feeding and Skippy would not be back home again right now.

That's fate!