Much like Harry Potter is “The Boy Who Lived,” Pouncy is “The Cat Who Lived.”

Pouncy is 10 times better today than she was on Monday. I wouldn’t say she’s back to her old self again though, but she is on her way. They say cats have 9 lives, and I figured by now she’s pretty much used them all up, but she seems determined to prove the vet wrong (she has a few times now). I’m feeling a lot better about her sickness since she has begun eating a lot more and drinking more often too. FIV has stages very much like HIV in humans. There’s no doubt she’s in the last stage which is the final or chronic stage. She’ll probably continue to develop infections every few months and eventually…well…

But today is a good day I think. She’s doing okay right now – eating, drinking, getting lots of rest. I add Pedialyte to her food every chance I get. Hopefully she’ll be running around soon, but it may take awhile. I’m trying to be optimistic about it all. I know the day will come where Pouncy won’t physically be with me anymore, but no matter what happens, she’ll always be in my heart!

Pouncy is sick. We took her to the vet yesterday for a cold that she’s developed. She had a cold back in early March, and we took her to the vet then too. She was given some antibiotics and she recovered really quickly then. I think we took her when her cold was more advanced though, so the improvement was pretty dramatic.

When we took her yesterday, she didn’t see her regular doctor. She saw this new person (a woman), and we told her Pouncy had been sick in March and what she was given and the woman gave us the same stuff this time. I was happy with that because I was hoping the medicine would work as quickly this time. The woman also listened to her heart and lungs and said everything sounded good.

Well, Pouncy’s nose is way worse off this time than it was in March. She almost sounds like she is wheezing. It’s because her nose is so stuffed up. Her nose makes a whistling sounds when she breathes. The worst thing about her being sick this time though is that she stopped eating and drinking. When she was sick before, she never stopped eating or drinking. The last time she ate was yesterday at around 10:00 a.m. She had 4 little Vienna sausages then. (Pouncy doesn’t just eat typical cat food. She thinks she’s human and she eats like one sometimes. Please no one leave comments about how feeding my cat human food is bad because I’m not really going to care what you have to say about it. Pouncy is 18 years old, with FIV, and she’s never had a problem with anything she’s ever eaten.) So, this morning Colin and I gave her her morning dose of antibiotic, and then Colin went to work. She still hadn’t eaten. We’d tried canned chicken and tuna which she loves, and she wouldn’t touch either of them, nor drink any water. I did a little reading about things on the internet, and I called the vet’s office, explained the situation, and the receptionist suggested I bring her back in. I called Colin at work, and luckily he was able to leave even though they were short two people.

We had to wait a little while for the doctor to come in. He kind of just stood there for a minute when he did come in. I think he’s really surprised she’s still alive. She’s 18, has feline AIDS, weighs about 4.5 pounds, and just keeps hanging in there. He did say that this is pretty serious this time since she’s pretty much dehydrated. He tried to give her IV fluids, but it stressed her out too much. He didn’t want to make her go into cardiac arrest or anything. He said X-rays could be done or blood work, but both of those would stress her to the max and could make her worse or potentially cause her to arrest anyway. Soooo… he gave us some canned food that we can use with a syringe to feed her that way, and he gave us a little cocktail of vitamins, steroids, and an appetite increaser.

When we got home, we finally got some of that vitamin mixture in her, and she hated it and was stressed out, but she finally swallowed some of it. She kept going to her water bowl, but would never drink any. I made a little piece of sausage for her, and… she ate it!!! She ate most of it. She also finally started taking little tiny sips of water. We took her in the bathroom and turned on the shower to hot and let it get nice and steamy for her, and she ate a little more sausage and drank a little water, just tiny sips. Once we left the bathroom, she went to her water bowl and drank for like 3 or 4 minutes straight it seemed like!

I’m soooo happy she finally ate and drank on her own without having to be force fed. However, I will try to give her some of that food with a syringe later once Colin’s home. We’re also going to get her some pedialyte (sp?) and/or Gatorade (the vet recommended this) and some other foods she likes a lot (including some fast food). My mom is on her way here and she’s bringing Pouncy a plain cheeseburger from McDonald’s. Hopefully she’ll eat that right up.

If you’re a person who says prayers for people, say a little prayer for Pouncy. If you aren’t a prayer person, just think a few optimistic, happy thoughts for her please. I know she’s old and won’t live forever, but I really hope this isn’t the end for her yet.

(I took some pics of my room yesterday, but will get around to posting them another time, along with the calendar image. It’s more important for me to worry about Pouncy right now.)