A scary number of tears were shed last week, worrying about our Soot Boy. Thankfully his bloods came back and showed nothing awful …. so we returned to the original hypothesis …. that it was his teeth causing the problems. So .. good news about his kidneys and thyroid, but bad news that he had to go through a dental op whilst he was underweight and quite frail. Not quite sure how we got through last Tuesday at work, waiting for the vets to phone with news of how it had gone. Poor old boy had another 4 teeth out. Nothing quite like the joy of going to collect him though when I’d feared I wouldn’t see him (alive) again. We got safely locked into the car and got out the carrier for a cuddle. When we stopped at the lights on the way home I looked down and he was gazing up at me with his gorgeous white whiskers shining in the street lights. When we pulled up on the drive at home, and I turned the engine off, he was purring. When we got in the house he ate and ate … mainly hand fed chicken … but who cares? …. he was eating.
He’s had no shortage of visitors whilst he’s been sick. It’s not taken long for people to cotton on that the best food is served in his vicinity. We all know the kind of visitors who turn up just to eat our grapes and fill in our puzzle books .. here’s the feline version of it.
We’re not entirely out of the woods yet. There was lots of upset that Dr Tim had kept his teeth so he couldn’t put them under his pillow for the tooth fairy. However when we talked it through … there’s nothing the tooth fairy could bring that I wouldn’t happily provide x100 just to keep him happy. The issue of the shaved knees was a little trickier … We have our Flipper (who ought to know better) and some other giggly kittens, all too ready to tease him. They’ve all been threatened … on pain of Dreamie withdrawal .. about commenting on this.
The next challenge is going to be getting him back to eating cat food along with the others, rather than discreetly loitering whilst they’re being fed, and then expecting mega posh food being spoon fed to him. Don’t tell him just yet, but if spoon feeding is the way to go to get him to put weight on … I’m up for it. I know his thyroid & kidneys aren’t great and this isn’t the end of it. Just for now though … just for now … I’m so grateful to have him home.
* mega thanks to Aunty Jenny for keeping picking me up when I fell apart, and to Millhouses Vets4Pets for looking after us both.
8 Lives: Sheffield 8 Cat Rescue 