Thumbelina

It's been a heartbreaking week for cat lovers at the animal shelter. I went to work on Saturday and found out that my favorite cat, Ratchet, had been euthanized because he got sick and the treatment room was full, as it always is. I guess I didn't think to put my name on his profile to keep him safe because we haven't been fostering since we adopted Zsasz and it's horribly inconvenient.

Which, I suspect, is how we got in our current situation.

On Thursday, when the vets came around I was cleaning Thumbelina's cage. She'd been there almost a month, which was weird because she's a beautiful, sweet Maine Coon mix, almost 6 months old. I asked the vets why she hadn't been spayed as a Highly Adoptable animal, and they said that they aren't doing HA kittens anymore because they get sick so easily after surgery. I started talking to Thumbelina and told her that maybe I would talk to my husband and she could come stay with us and play with our kitty while she waits to be spayed.

As luck would have it, she got sick Friday. So it's good that I didn't take her because she probably would have gotten Zsasz sick. Bad news is, I got a text from the foster coordinator because the vet tech remembered me talking about/to Thumbelina. So this is what's in our bedroom now:

The photo really doesn't do her justice, but she's also not feeling well. Zsasz has been kicked out of the bedroom and she spends most of her time in that crate. First night we had her, she was like this all the time:

(video)

I must have woken up a dozen times that night. Each sniff and snortle would have me suddenly awake, heart racing. I even tried sleeping on the futon, but Zsasz was being an ass.

Since the first night, she's gotten significantly better and I think she gets more sleep. This morning I woke up to the most amazing sound: cat food being crunched. Since we got her, the only food she would eat was force fed to her. Her eating on her own is amazing. So happy about that.

It may be due in part to my husband clearing out her nose, which was an ordeal. Some of the spray ran down into her mouth and had her foaming for a good few minutes. Poor girl.

A family visited with her before she got sick and decided to put a deposit on her Friday. Her meds will be done on Sunday, so she can be checked out on Monday. If she passes, I expect she'll be put on Wednesday's surgery list. That would give her and Zsasz a couple days to play together before he loses his foster sister so soon.