| Meet Ziggy! I got Ziggy
when he was less than a week old and his
eyes weren't even open yet. The mother
cat (a stray left behind when her owner
moved away) had gotten killed on the
road, and her two babies were later found
in a tire in an outside garage. My aunt
brought them to my house and I weaned the
kittens using diluted canned milk from an
eye dropper. They were so small I could
hold both of them in one hand. Ziggy's
favorite toy is a furry mouse filled with
catnip. I get it out for a few minutes
every day or every other day and it gets
him excited and he plays with it and
stomps on it for a while until he falls
asleep with it at which time I hide it
again.
One of his favorite sleeping spots is
inside his basket by the living room
window. It seems to fit him perfectly and
he spends a lot of time there. A new
favorite spot he has been spending time
in recently is his "straw box."
This is a box we filled with straw. It
smells like the fresh outdoors and he
makes himself a nest in it before going
to sleep.
Ziggy's favorite music is polkas. He
first heard them during his kittenhood
and adolescence. When I play polkas for
him now, it makes him feel young and spry
again!
His favorite time of day is either
morning time- when he gets to go outside
for at least an hour- or bedtime, when he
lays on our chest staring us in the eye,
and receives lots of petting, kind words,
and brushing.
Ziggy is a quiet cat who rarely "talks"
but does a lot of purring!
You may notice in the picture that one
of his legs is bandaged up, and this is
why... In June he got a blood clot which
cut off his circulation and paralyzed his
right foreleg. He had no prior history of
health problems that we were aware of
with the exception of irregular heartbeat.
At the emergency vet, he was not
expected to even make it through the
night. He DID make it through the night
but was in critical condition on oxygen
for several days. He end up staying
nearly a week in the hospital. His
echocardiogram showed that he has "dilated
cardiomyopathy." After returning
home, his strength slowly began to return
and with a lot of love and care he is
becoming just like his old self again!
On July 3rd he went back for his
checkup but unfortunately, the
circulation had not returned to his limb
and it was essentially "dead."
Euthanasia or amputation were the only
options they gave us. We had almost
chosen the surgery, but after learning
his odds were only 20:80 of surviving it
without any major complications we
decided not to put him through it. We
were also told that if he does survive
the operation and makes it home he will
probably not live more than a few months,
as his long-term prognosis is quite poor
anyway even with the successful
amputation of his leg.
We chose to take him home, and before
we left we learned that their best guess
for how long Ziggy has left is a few days
to a week before he starts getting real
sick from his leg and would need
euthanized.
However, to our delight, this dire
prediction was wrong and Ziggy has been
doing wonderful for over 3 months! He is
our miracle kitty to have done so well
for so long now. He runs around the house
and plays as if there were nothing wrong
with him! He has supervised visits
outside for at least an hour each day. He
often wants to spend several hours
roaming and exploring the woods, long
after I've gotten tired and declared his
outside time was over! Every moment with
Ziggy is a wonderful gift that I will
always cherish. He turns 15 in a few
weeks and we plan to give him a special
birthday party. He has already beaten the
odds and is one tough little kitty to be
doing so well despite his handicap. Ziggy
will forever hold a very special place in
our hearts!
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