A milestone!

 

Yesterday marked a special day for Milkshake - it was his second anniversary of being seizure-free!  It brought back all sorts of memories of the nightmarish year of his suffering seizure after seizure - the frightening awakenings in the early hours of the morning, the horrifying noises, the violence of the muscular contractions, the vulnerability of this little cat to whatever was so horribly wrong in his brain.   It makes my stomach clench just thinking about it.  I was so superstitious about seizures returning that I could hardly bring myself to even mention how long it had been.  I remain nervous about it - the latest dose reduction of Keppra, while involuntary and seemingly effective - is still traumatic.  It's been two years and I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking that I'm hearing Milk seizing.    But, fingers crossed, he will continue as he has been for the rest of his hopefully very lengthy life.


Milk just turned 5 around August, I calculate.  His first year included serious malnutrition and life-threatening neglect of his health.  He was kept briefly in a shelter, and then in a cage at PetSmart, where I found him, sad and sick and frightened and yellow with urine stains.  It took months for him to reach a normal weight, to overcome the respiratory and eye infections he had.  But from the time I brought him home, he showed no sign of bad effects of the horrors he'd experienced as a tiny starving kitten.  He was so affectionate and so eager to snuggle up to me and the other cats.   And of all the cats we've had/have, I don't believe that there is one who would have tolerated being "pilled" four times a day as well as Milk has.  (To the manufacturers of Temptations and Pill Pockets - you have my eternal gratitude!)  At pill time, he hops up on the counter, I hold open his mouth, give him a squirt of water from his kitten bottle, pop in his pills, and give another squirt of water .  No fussing, no fiddling - he's totally focused on the box of Temptations that's sitting beside him.....


I feel very fortunate to have found my Milkshake.  I have had cats for years, most of whom I loved and enjoyed.   (Tootie and Cinnaminnie, cover your ears!)    But there is something special about Milk that reaches some deep part of my cat-loving heart.  I hold him there with pleasure and gratitude and joy that I have been given the privilege of caring for him and loving him.  My sweet white kitty.......