Madame Sneakers - 25th March 2014

My Madame Sneakers crossed over to Rainbow Bridge this morning 25^th March 2014 at 9:17am sitting by me next to the computer where she sat with me daily. She followed my every footstep around the home

This is her story.

My Mother passed away on September 12th, 2013.  I was beside myself with grief and felt very lonely. 

On the 1^st of October, looking out of the kitchen window, I noticed a mother feral cat in my backyard taking her kittens to where there were some heated dog houses towards the back of the yard. I thought she was trying to get them to the warmth.

To my great surprise there was a baby feral kitten sitting on our white patio chair. It was probably only barely a few weeks old just sitting there, when suddenly, out of the clear blue, it started snowing harder and getting colder.  I was baking and each time I passed the window, she would just be sitting there on the chair. My heart could not take it any longer and I called my vet who told me to warm up towels from the dryer and keep her warm and she would see her in morning.

Oh, she was a tiny thing. I hand fed her right from the start using a syringe every few hours. She was soooo tiny and a bottle was too big for her little mouth. Love bloomed then and there, warming her sweet little body so tiny and only few weeks old.

My husband was so in love with this little one from the start. We named "her" Sneakers as she did a sneaky showing up at that time of year unexpectedly.

The vet checked her the next morning and she said that she was way too tiny; she’d see us back in a month. I was still helping her feed every few hours using the syringe.

We went back a month later and she was still too tiny to get shots. She barely weighed a pound at approximately 6 weeks old. She did get wormed and ears cleaned and some eye drops and we were told to come back in 2 weeks.

The check ups continued every few weeks (no charge from my vet) this kitten amazed her! They all loved her!

We continued to take her back to the vets although she still barely gained any weight. Finally, though, she was eating on her own and she’d only take dry food. We offered her everything and anything. She had started eating on her own at around 2 months or little after.

We cared for her so tenderly although we knew she was "different". The vet said that she is a good cat, just a small one. Another vet had looked at her , and said he had "tiny" feral kittens last year as well.

We came home and the love for her just grew more and more and all the other wild animals loved her as well but she still had a strange wobble and head tilt slightly.

We finally went back on March 20th and we were worried as she had lost another 2oz. At her weigh in she was only 1 lb 2 oz.

The vet said she has something that we call Portosystemic shunt (liver shunt) in cats | Cat Health Collection which basically means : lack of growth and lack of gaining weight ...

The vet said she could have surgery like another Persian cat that was there who was about to under go the same surgery, but it would cost around $6,000.00 for this one little vein to be repaired.

The vet suggested we take her home and continue feeding her and that she’d see us in a week’s time. She also said that Sneakers might or might not make it and to keep that in mind.

Over the next three days, Madame Sneakers walked slower. It was almost as if she knew what the vet had said. Her last two days she could barely walk but she did drink water and she ate some chicken as well as her Crispies which she loved. 

That morning (25th March) we woke up and she was very weak. She would not drink or eat. She just looked at me. I put her on her clean towel by my laptop as I always did each morning and I knew what she was telling me --- today she would meet her Maker and at 9:17 am, she did … peacefully and with lots of love around her and her other brothers and sisters (her family) she closed her eyes and went to Heaven ...  

What a blessed six months this home has been since she came to us and "Madame Sneakers" will be forever in our hearts.  Please keep her and us in your prayers. My heart is so heavy as Danny's is.  The other wild animals are a bit quiet today as well.  We loved this tiny little soul so tenderly.  

We feel my Mother helped guide us and knew this tiny kitten. Whether the feral mother abandoned her or forgot about her as she was busy going to warmer places with her kittens that she accidentally left her behind or that she needed help and chose us to look after her so tenderly. She needed a home and family even if it was for a short time on earth and perhaps the mother feral knew she would get plenty of love here from us -- this she took with her and she will watch over us as Mother continues to do.

It’s a mystery how she got up on to that white patio chair in order for me to see her from the kitchen window .... but I’m glad I did as our lives are the richer for knowing her and having loved her.

Becky, Danny and the Wild Animals

http://www.paws2heaven.com/poems/lend_me_a_kitten.htm

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