A kitty update

Because I’m still half-dead with Health Fail, I’m going to take the easy way out and write about my cats.

Update on the injured stray: Jerina has adjusted, somewhat. She still hides primarily in my son’s room, where we first kept her, but she’s begun exploring more. She still eats just about anything we put in front of her. She’s skittish and runs away if it looks like we’re going to approach her. But she loves to be petted and will come if you call.

On the injured leg, her claws won’t retract. When she walks about in the middle of the night, you know it’s her because you hear skkt-skkt-skkt whenever she places that foot down and lifts it again. I have to trim those claws often.

She will not jump on the beds or on any of the furniture. She will not sit in the windows. I’m wondering if her previous owner didn’t hit her if she jumped on the furniture, but Wendy has suggested she simply feels more exposed up there. 

She has never fought with the other two cats. She almost seems friendly with them. You know how a cat will rub its body against your leg when it wants something? She’ll do that against Stormy’s face. (Stormy then gives her this WTH? look. It’s hilarious.)

Stormy: about three weeks ago, Stormy crashed. She looked just like Venus did before Venus died. I got her to the vet the next day, fully expecting to hear “renal failure.”

The vet put her on the scale and we learned she’d lost 5 pounds since last year! That’s about a third of her body weight! Poor kitty. She had a fever, too. He took blood and offered her an antibiotic while we waited for the numbers to come back.

Next day, her numbers came back perfect. Thyroid, kidneys, blood sugar: she was fine. Huh. No explanation for the weight loss. We kept giving her the antibiotic, and after a few days she seemed well again.

Now here’s the weird part: she’s suddenly acting like the cat she was about eight years ago. (she’s 14 now.)  She’s all over the house, jumping on our laps, scavenging for food, begging at the table. She plays. She went from being a throw pillow with feet to being a cool young cat.

So what’s the deal? I have only two guesses: one: I prayed for her health, and God restored her to kittenhood.

Two: when Venus died, she felt less stressed and stopped overeating to deal with it; once the infection was cleared up, she felt better, and now she’s hungrier (due to the weight loss) and she’s also more energetic (from not carrying around five extra pounds) and so she’s acting like a kitten again. Plus, she’s missing a few teeth, so maybe the dry food is too difficult to chew, so why overeat?

I have no idea which is the better explanation. #2 makes sense but relies on too much of a chain of events. #1 is simpler but relies on the supernatural. Regardless, I’m glad she’s doing okay.