We’ve been discussing the different animals at my house lately. We’ve talked about my pudgy pooch, Paxton and about my naughty cat, Castro. Today, we are going to talk about Kali, Castro’s mama.
Four years ago, #1 Daughter decided to move from Colorado to Alaska. This was a pretty major relocation! She was unable to take her kitty, Kali, with her. #1 Daughter was at a loss as to what to do. She was afraid that if she took Kali to a shelter, she would be put down. That would be sad. She asked if we would be willing to take her in.
There are a lot of miles between Mississippi and Colorado, but I didn’t have the heart to tell #1 Daughter “No.” so MFH (My Favorite Husband) and I made travel plans to go to Colorado and bring back Kali.
While all of this transpired, #1 Daughter also asked me to travel with her to Alaska. This left MFH with the task of driving back to Mississippi, by himself, with a cat in the car.
All the travels went well. #1 Daughter and I made it to Alaska (What an adventure! What fun!!!) and MFH and Kali made it to Mississippi. All was well.
After Kali had lived with us a while, she became very, very ill. I was afraid she was going to die! We took her to the Vet and she stayed there for three days. She almost didn’t make it! She’s a tough kitty tough and pulled through.
Come to find out, Kali has some sort of auto-immune disease and has to be on predisone for the rest of her kitty life.
Prednisone is not at all palatable~especially to kitties! I had to figure out a way to hide the taste of the medication. I tried everything! For a while, she was so sick, she couldn’t eat anything, let alone her medication.
Kali had retreated to staying under my bed. I would coat a spoon with sour cream. She would lick the sour cream off of the spoon. Eventually, she was strong enough from that sour cream that she could eat something else. That something else was…tuna.
Not cat food tuna, mind you…REAL tuna. You know, the stuff we eat! Every morning, I crush her prednisone into dust and mix it with some tuna. Kali stamps her kitty feet impatiently. She’s hungry and wants her tuna. I call it her tuna dance.
What a spoiled cat!
For all of tuna dancing, she is the sweetest kitty I have ever known. And she loves me. I think she knows that I saved her life, maybe?
So, how do I know she loves me?
Well, she brings me presents almost every single day. Oh yes~that cat is a hunter! I went out to get the mail a few minutes ago and there lined up neatly on the door mat were three dead mice. Just for me! How sweet!?!
She purrs. Now, most cats purr but this cats PURRS when she sees me. You can hear her at the other end of the house! She can really belt it out!
She follows me everywhere I go throughout the house. If she is outdoors when I leave on a run, she follows me on part of my run, too! I’ll be running along and will hear a faint, “Jingle, jingle, jingle.” That is the bell on her collar. I will hear a “Mew!” That is her saying,”Wait for me! I want to come, too!” (She has run an entire half mile with me! That’s pretty good for a cat!)
Kali is my kitty buddy. She is a good cat. She is leaning on 9 years old now. With her auto immune thing, I have no idea how long she’ll live. I want her to have a quality life though. When she gets so she cannot hunt and run and be happy anymore…well, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. What a great cat!