Month: July 2014

May we borrow 30 seconds of your time to show you just how cute Steve is?

You’d think they were littermates with how snuggly they get sometimes!!

I took some video of Steve throwing herself around. Everything is forced, so the video is bouncy as I am directing Steve where to go. If I can catch her in the act as she does it during a case of the crazies, it will look much better. I won’t be so close to her. Also, it’s all in my bathroom, since that’s where she is fed and that is where the window is that she most often pulls herself into. Enjoy!!

This one is her stepping up into the window. She puts a paw on the low, uncovered litter box to hoist herself onto the toilet so she can then step into the window.

 

This is her pulling herself up into the window. I had to block her litter box route, so I’m sitting on the toilet right next to the window. Sometimes she puts a paw on the basket between the toilet and the wall for a little boost, sometimes she just jumps up. Either way, she jumps high enough to claw the lip on the window sill, then pulls herself up into the window!

 

I’ve noticed something recently about Steve’s mobility, specifically her upward mobility. I would love to get a video of her doing this, but it happens so spontaneously that I would have to be recording her doing something else and just happen to catch her doing it. My hope in this discovery is to give hope to owners of other rear leg amp cats. Cats are jumpers of crazy heights, both up and down. I remember being a bit nervous about Steve being able to get around to the heights that my other two cats are able to get to. In the past year, Steve and I have both figured some things out…Steve more than I.

Steve has become a rock climber of sorts. I intentionally leave Steve’s nails long so she can use them for grabbing and pulling in any capacity she needs. Well as it turned out, she needs! I’ve witnessed her jumping just enough to grab a window ledge, then pulling herself up the rest of the way using almost all upper body strength the way a rock climber would!! Yesterday, I saw an even better move (the move that would be nearly impossible to catch on video). She ran at the perch I have under the kitchen window. She placed one paw on the lower level of the perch, swung her body up to land on the next level, then grabbed the window ledge and landed in the window!

I try to have makeshift steps for all of the places Steve needs to get up into. It appears she doesn’t need them! Steve is parkouring and rock climbing her way around the apartment! She’s even figured out how to climb Yorrick’s crate to get up into the window it’s under!

To all of you who are new to this and worry about your cat being able to get around, I promise you that he or she will figure out a way!

Steve had trip to the vet today. It was the first trip since her initial post adoption wellness visit that was not an emergency trip or a visit related to her gastrointestinal troubles! Today was a visit for her annual exam and regular vaccines and boy did it feel good!

We saw Dr Sarah, the veterinarian who assisted in her amputation surgery and who figured how to find the sweet spot between constipation and diarrhea. Dr Sarah said that Steve looked the best she’s ever seen her! She said she was finally at a healthy weight, her coat was thick and shiny, and her eyes were bright!! Dr Sarah also said that it was really nice to have a visit with Steve that was so easy! She was very careful about where to place Steve’s vaccines in case of vaccine associated sarcoma. I told her that I was aware of the danger, and that I appreciated her concern, but that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed or even scared to go through another amputation. I’m confident in my abilities to care for a double amputee cat or a cat in a cart, and I’m confident in Steve’s ability to overcome anything thrown her way. I am very glad to have a veterinarian who is conscious of the risks, especially in a cat who is already an amputee.

Steve’s one year ampuversary is in one month, on August 15th. I look at pictures from when she first came to live with us, and she definitely looked like a skinny, ratty, roughed up cat. I always thought that after she had healed from surgery she looked great. I guess she has just been improving a little bit every day, except for the minor trauma she went through with the GI troubles.

On a very different note, we have a single A short season minor league baseball team in our area. Their Bark in the Park game is this Thursday. Since Steve can’t go to represent Tripawds, Yorrick will be wearing Steve’s Tripawds bandanna and will be proudly representing his sister and all of Tripawds nation!!

Kitten season is in full swing and I’m being a terrible foster mom. I keep leaving town, which means I can’t take in any kittens to foster. Next week, I’m going to Boston with my parents to help my sister’s family move. After that, I promised the humane society that I will start taking kittens!

Today, I got a phone call from the humane society (the very one that Steve came from) that warmed my heart and boosted my self esteem. It was one of the vet technicians that had assisted with Steve’s amputation surgery. She was calling to see if I could take another kitty amputee in for a post op foster! She said that she has a very short list of foster families that she trusts with such cases, and I am on that short list!! I told her that I was going away for a few days next week, but that as soon as I got back in town I would take the kitty in if no one else did.

It feels so good to be trusted with something so important! I hope no one else is available so our furry family gets to be the one to care for this kitty in her post op days! How great will it be to have two Tripawds hopping around the apartment for a couple of weeks?!