A Cat with Nine Lives

Well, I don't think he's used up all of his nine lives... yet... but he's got a good head start on it!  Our sweet orange cat, whom we affectionately call Simba (he's got a white circle on both sides of his body,the circles reminded us of the song Circle of Life in the movie the Lion King, hence his name Simba). 

Simba was a rescue cat.  Our next door neighbor showed up one afternoon on his bike, carrying Simba in his jacket.  Apparently Simba had become separated from his mom and was found wandering outside our neighbor's home.  He kept Simba for the night and brought him to us the next day. We instantly fell in love with this poor little abandoned fella, and he immediately took up residence at our home like he'd always lived here.  He never wanted to go outside, and ran from the door when it was open. Apparently he had very bad memories of being outside. 

His favorite place to be was wrapped up in a coat, jacket or robe with his little head peeking out!

And Cosmo was his adopted daddy... he loved Cosmo dearly, and loved to sleep cuddled up next to him.

He loved to sit in this position like a little groundhog- so cute!

But then one day something terrible happened.  Simba was playing on the woodpile downstairs next to Mr. Beast.  He jumped from the woodpile onto the top of the hot stove.  Instantly, all four of his little paws were burnt.  He jumped off the stove and we found him just huddling on the floor when we came downstairs to see what had happened.  It was an awful thing for all of us.  He couldn't walk at all on his paws.  I took him to the vet, and there wasn't much they could do.  We applied some Silvadene  to his paws and I found these little rubber finger "cots" at the local drug store.  It hurt him for us to put the finger cots on, but it did keep the medication on his paws and kept them from getting infected. 

Problem was, he couldn't walk at all, and we had to carry him everywhere.  He would get on my desk and sleep on my desk.  I snapped the above picture where he had fallen asleep on my Bible on my desk.

His paws finally healed up, and he was back to himself.  His favorite thing was still to curl up next to Cosmo. There were times that Cosmo wasn't too happy about having little Simba sleeping next to him.  But he was patient and kind, and allowed Simba to curl up next to him and sleep. 

We found out that what Simba loved to do most was sleep, and he always made sure he found soft, cuddly sleeping spots.

Time passed and it was time to get Simba "fixed".  He had overcome his fear of the outdoors once summer came, and soon found lady "friends" and would often stay gone a night or two at a time.  I read an ad in the newspaper that the local Humane Society was having a spay and neuter clinic and made an appointment with them for Simba.

This is the picture I took of Simba the night before the procedure.

Simba was in perfect health, happy and content the night before we took him for the procedure. This is the picture I took of him because the Humane Society requested we tape a picture of our animal to the carrier for identification.  As you can see, he looks as adorable as can be. 

I was shocked when we got him home and took him out of the cage.  His nose and whisker area was abraded so badly it was dripping blood.  His nose was swollen twice its size, and he began frantically running through the house looking for water. He would drink some water and then frantically run through the house looking for more water.  This went on for quite a while, until finally he got enough water to drink. 

I called the clinic to see what had gone wrong with his nose.  They had no answers.  They thought maybe he had gotten frantic in the ride to the clinic, and perhaps tried to escape from the carrier.  However, he is a very calm kitty normally, and we've never had a problem with him trying to escape from the carrier when we've carried him in it before. 

Here is a picture of him shortly after we got him home.  I snapped this picture with my camera phone (sorry about the poor quality) of Simba in the bathroom sink after he drank and drank for a long time.  You can see the red swollen nose.

It has gotten much worse.  He has begun to lose all the hair on his nose and the area around his mouth has become swollen and infected.  He couldn't eat or drink at all unless we gave him soft foods like tuna, and we had to sryinge feed him water.

I talked to the vet who did the surgery and he could offer me no explanation for why Simba was suffering so severely after just a routine, simple procedure.  His only explanation to me was that he did remember Simba because when first evaluated Simba and get ready to begin the procedure, he noted that his nose was already red at that point.  That is why they assume something must have happened to him in the carrier, but they don't know what.  The vet assured me that he should soon recover from this. I was treating Simba with oregano oil in his food, and with some colloidal silver in his water.  The vet felt like this was very appropriate treatment, and that he should recover quickly.

This is Simba today a little over a week later.  He is feeling much better.  He has been lying at the door, crying and wanting to go out.  This is a positive sign, because for the past week, he has not wanted to do anything but sleep.  We had to get him up to take him potty and to syringe feed him water.  He started eating regular cat food again today, and drinking on his own.  And he was able to purr again.  For the past week, he hasn't even been able to purr because his nose and face were so swollen.

He is finally breathing better and not wheezing, able to purr and cry at the door, which are all positive things.  He is eating and drinking now by himself, and we are hopeful that he will continue to improve.

This poor little kitty has been through so much in his little life, and so we are now calling him the cat with nine lives, because he certainly has had a rough go of it in his life so far. 

I am disturbed by what happened with the visit to the Humane Society, especially since no one had any answers as to why our poor little kitty went in a healthy cat and came home looking like he'd been in a violent assault.  When I spoke with the vet, he was very kind, and did tell me that sometimes cats do crazy things in the cat carriers because of all the noise of the other animals.  Regardless of what happened, I do know this one thing, I would never allow another pet of mine to be treated at the Humane Society, as it certainly was not a very humane thing which happened to our poor little Simba. 

Yet, our cat with nine lives is going to be just fine, I believe, and no doubt will be one very, very, very spoiled cat once he is completely well.  I noticed today when I took him downstairs to his feed bowl that he cried after he was finished and stretched out his paws towards me.  He was telling me to pick him up and carry him back upstairs to his bed.  He's so lovable and sweet, I couldn't resist, although I'm sure as he gets to feeling better, he'll want to do these things all on his own... at least I hope he will!