|
Sign Our
Guestbook | View Our
Guestbook
Jump to the pictures of Tardy
Tardy's Story
One day last fall I was working in a kennel and the owner told me
that this lady who lived in a trailer near her had a cat that kept having kittens. This
last batch of kittens had one that couldn’t walk. I asked a little more about his
symptoms, and sure enough, I knew we were dealing with another cerebellar hypoplasia
kitty. I got the woman’s phone number and called her right up. My friend told me to
do it quickly, since this woman was on the verge of putting the kitten ‘out of
it’s misery’. This, of course, was at the vet’s suggestion. I was so mad, I
guess you can all relate to how I felt about hearing that.
Later on that day, randy and I went to meet the kitten. It was eight weeks old and still
nursing on mommy cat, had never even eaten solid food yet. The poor little guy was VERY
VERY small. They were treating him with tresaderm (treatment for earmites) and prednisone
(a widely used steroid) , just in case it was an ear infection. I was SO mad when I took
this medicine for him, I threw it away as soon as I got home with him. They were treating
him for something that he obviously didn’t have. It was like they misdiagnosed his
condition. But maybe the thought that this kitten only had an ear infection is what kept
him alive till we could pick him up, who knows. They had been calling him tardy, since he
was born a day after his siblings, and we decided to keep that name, it did seem to fit
him.
We spent a lot of time working with him, lots of physical therapy, playing with a laser
pointer, toys that he can swat at, and playing with the other cats, but it became apparent
pretty quickly that he was a lot worse than Shiloh. But every improvement is a miracle,
every time he was able to take one more step without falling over was like a ray of
sunshine smacking us in the face. And boy can this little baby make us happy!! The first
time he got up on the bed, the first time he was able to jump another cat and not miss,
the first time we saw him actually take off running!!! What a joy!!
At first it was very hard to get him to gain weight, I pretty much had to force feed him
solid food for a while, he had a hard time getting the knack of it. Then he seemed to be
stuck at three-quarters of a pound for quite a while. We wound up getting some
Waltham’s kitten growth formula, and that helped him over the hump.
We went through the ‘neuter’ scare with him, it was very scary , especially
since shiloh had a hard time with anesthesia , we didn’t know what to expect with
tardy. But all went well, and he was as fine as can be that night when he got home. He
wasn’t even mad at us!!
One thing that we noticed is that little Tardy isn’t afraid of any of the cats. With
23 cats total there is a pecking order that they all go through, and Tardy is not anywhere
near the bottom of it. It doesn’t matter to him who he jumps. One of our cats
Harriette jumped on him, she soon left for easier prey.
I’d have to say that the only real problem we have with tardy is his absolute refusal
to use the litter box. But he did let us know pretty early on that he would stoop down to
using newspaper. Sooo , that’s how we have gotten a grip on that little problem. With
love, all problems can be solved. And how we love our little tardy!!!! We have never ever
for one second regretted taking this little bundle of joy from the trailer people.
Bette & Randy
reddish@catfamily.com
omerna@catfamily.com
Daddy, what's that thing in mommy's hand?
Hey! Didn't you see that "DO NOT DISTURB" sign on the door??
|
|