Howdy my friendly dog folk!

You are not going to believe what has been happening around here in the animal world. Although they don’t get talked about often, we have two cats that rule the upstairs domain in our house. I know my mom has sometimes considered writing about the life of a house cat through their eyes — but there is some fear that the cats may find out, disagree with what has been written and kill all living humans in sight. They are very likely planning world domination and might blow us all up if they find out I’ve been talking about them, so please keep this on the DL.

The ring leader, otherwise known as Princess, is a Norwegian Forest Cat mix and she is quite possibly the only cat in the world that dislikes herself more than she dislikes humans. Ok, maybe not all the time — because she does show affection from time to time. But both of the cats who occupy the space upstairs like to keep to themselves and will accept love only on their terms.

This is her happy face

Now, I have to mention that these cats are pretty old. I mean I guess not in relative cat-age terms — but they are going to turn 12 next spring so they’re not exactly spring chickens. And yes, I know I’m not a spring chicken anymore either, but you don’t have to rub it in. I’m only half their age, after all! And so far, they have rarely ever been sick in any way, aside from a bout with ear mites when Princess was a kitten (which delayed her move to Germany).

At any rate, a little over a week ago, Mom & Dad started to get really concerned about Princess. She was spending more and more time under the bed and seemed to lose at least a pound or two within just a few days. Now if this cat were the size of me, that wouldn’t be a big deal. But she’s a maximum of 8.5 pounds soaking wet which meant that she was down to skin and bones. She was also very weak, to the point that she couldn’t even jump up on the bed anymore.

So it was off to the vet with the sick little kitty, where they promptly pumped her full of antibiotics and cortisone. They also started her on a high-calorie diet and infusions to get her fluid levels back on track. Her skin and nose had become really pale and yellowish…and a blood test revealed that her red blood cell count had plummeted to dangerously low levels.

The actual diagnosis is called hemolytic anemia — which is basically just a fancy way of saying that the red blood cells in her body were being destroyed and not replaced. This can actually be a life-threatening problem if not dealt with quickly.

At any rate, she’s now back on the road to recovery and becoming her old grumpy self again. For those who read mom’s bi-weekly newsletter, thank you for all your prayers and positive thoughts — they must have helped! She’s already off of the antibiotics and just taking the cortisone for now — but with any luck, she won’t need that too much longer either. Mom isn’t too keen on giving it to her for a prolonged amount of time since it can have seriously life-shortening effects on cats in high doses.

And in the meantime, I’m keeping my head down because I don’t want to end up visiting the vet anytime soon myself! They always want to stick me with needles and pump me full of vaccines. Ick.

Drooly kisses for all!