Our Million Dollar Kitty

[EdV]

This is Carmella - one of our five cats. I always refer to her as our "Million Dollar Kitty" because it seems that is about what we have spent on her in vet bills alone over her now 12 years. Her adventures began when she was a kitten and when spayed, her vet could only find one ovary. We didn't think a whole lot about it but that turned out to just be the beginning. At age 5, she went into kidney failure. Mega vet bills later and she seemed better. Six months later, she had another bout of kidney failure and we thought we would lose her again. Again she recovered. But not before tests revealed she has only one kidney. Then when she was about 9 years old, she went into a funk. She lost her appetite and spent over a year (yes a year) spending 95% of her time laying on a mat atop a heating pad in a corner of the living room. We tried everything including Chinese herbal remedies that the vet prescribed. At times she seemed to have little strength at all. But she never lost the will to live. After about 15 months she decided she had enough and started eating, moving around, and acting normally. Well normally for Carmella. And now at the age of 12, she is doing all the "bad cat" things you'd expect of a kitten. She is running and jumping into windows, on desks, on kitchen counters and so on. She seems to be making up for lost time.

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s1/EdV_02/022-Edit-1.jpg

[jgrussell]

Lovely kitty and great story (good for kitty!). The focus (like most of mine of my cats) is on the nose, though, and I think it would be better to get the eyes crisp.

[Larry Weinman]

I agree with jgrussels coments. I have a cat with kidney disease. We have to give him subcutaneous fluids three times a week. The vet said he might live a year when he was diagnosed but he is now going on five years and doing great.

[Flo]

They have an amazing will to live ,these creatures.

[James Salenger]

She is worth every penny of it.