"Mathew Kagis" <winesnob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:%li3e.155390$fc4.98153@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> WOW!!! Funny though, the images were a little blurry, no I'm not crying
> there's something in my eye!!!! Really!!!!
Oh, really! ;)
> Good on you!! Hope Princess continues to improve. How old is she? Or do
> you
> know?
She's ancient, is all we know. There's no way to tell just *how* old, but
"really, REALLY old" is a good approximation. Two clues: all her claws are
extremely thickened, and her eyes have a lot of black dots, both signs of
very advanced age.
How she made it this far living wild is anyone's guess, but she's a
fighter
alright. A lot of cats would have just quietly expired somewhere out of
the
way. *She* chose my mother's house to stagger into on Boxing Day, the only
real cat lover's house on the whole street. Other people on the street had
seen her hanging around, but hadn't thought to do anything about it - like
try to feed her something, for instance (she's not a timid cat) . . .less
said about that, the better.
Anyhow, the amazing thing is, apart from starvation and severe arthritis,
there's not a whole lot wrong with her health-wise - no diabetes, no cat
AIDS, no infections, nothing. When she came in she had pressure sores on
her
back leg and on both hips, and she's got a tendency to develop ulcers on
her
chin (from dribbling), she doesn't always make it to the toilet in time,
but
otherwise she's a perfectly healthy cat. Ghod only know what her story is,
we're guessing that she perhaps just got too old to hunt and gradually
starved, but she's been someone's pet at some stage, there's no doubt.
Another milestone last night: she's gotten up the courage to sleep in my
bedroom. I made her a cozy, out of the way of the-herd-of-elephants (aka
my
other cats), place in the cupboard. She looked at me to ask "is it ok if I
sleep here?" (living with this cat is a *constant* heart breaker) and
after
a few pats settled down there. Up until now she would only sleep in the
spare bedroom, which was also her "safety" room, although she'd cry for me
to come in from time to time, but would *not* stay in my bedroom. The
weather here is starting to turn cold (I'm in Western Australia) so it was
im****tant to try to get her where I can keep her a bit warmer.
TK
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