Happy Thanksgiving!

Fluffy and Panini bird watching - Molly's out in the background!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I certainly have a lot to be thankful for. I took Panini to the vet yesterday because she'd been sick since the weekend. I had taken her for her shots on Friday, and to get a culture of this strange lump she has on her neck. She got sick the next day so I figured it was a reaction to her shots or something with the lump, since it had been punctured.

Well, the lump turned out to be a localized infection and not cancer or anything (thank goodness!) and seems to be going away. But she was still sick, and getting sicker. She hadn't eaten in 2 days and we were getting really worried. Yesterday she just seemed in pain, so I called up the vet and whisked her in. Well, it turns out she wasn't sick - she was injured. She had eaten one of my mom's sewing needles, and it lodged in the back of her mouth, several inches down into her neck! :( I'm still cringing at the thought - my poor kitty!!

Mom keeps her sewing supplies on a high shelf, out of the cats' reach, but she must have sneaked one away while Mom was sewing. It still had the thread attached. She needed emergency surgery to get it out, and after a little resting, we took her home. She immediately chowed down a whole can of food upon her return, and I hadn't seen her so active and animated since we first brought her home from the shelter!

I'm glad that trauma is over and she's feeling a lot better now. Now we need to work on beefing her up, as she's almost 5 months old and only 3.5 lbs - look how skinny she is! She's always been half the size of her sister (who got adopted the other day, by the way!), but her multiple illnesses have just set her back. She'll have a special serving of turkey set aside for her today :)

And on the subject of cats, today is Murphy's 7 year anniversary with us!

Thanksgiving 2003, he followed the neighbors home while they were walking after their meal. They called us up and asked if we were missing a cat - we weren't, but because they're not cat people, they dropped him off with us. We posted "found cat" signs, and several people came to see him, but no one claimed him. He's still with us after all these years!