In the Dark

Well, this has to have been the most stressful Easter Sunday I’ve had in my whole life…

This morning, around 11.30 or so, my old cat Columbo (whose 15th birthday was on 31st March) suffered some kind of a seizure while I was sitting out in my garden reading the newspaper. It’s been warm and sunny over the holiday weekend so I’ve been trying to make the most of it, including having breakfast al fresco.

Columbo suddenly had a funny turn, cried out and then simultaneously evacuated bowels and bladder onto the garden path.  He staggered off into the house, alternately mewing and hissing, and proceeded to half-pace half-crawl around from room to room. Hoping he would settle down in due course, I just kept an eye on him and tried to let him find somewhere comfortable to recover from whatever bad thing had happened to him. He  didn’t seem to recognize me or the house he was in.

After about an hour of this, I gave up and called the emergency line and the vet. Such things always seem to happen during holidays when the vets are closed. Anyway, I managed to persuade the vet on the other end of the line that it was indeed an emergency, and rushed the sick moggy there in a taxi. The emergency vet arrived and opened up the clinic about ten minutes later.

Columbo hadn’t really improved in the meantime and he behaved very strangely in the vets, pacing around the examination table and sniffing everything repeatedly. The vet examined him thoroughly, including testing his eyes. It appeared that he had lost most of his vision, probably very suddenly, and although he wasn’t completely blind this could account for his disorientation and obvious discomfort and stress.

There could be a variety of causes of such a seizure for an old cat (stroke, toxic shock, neurological disease, etc) but the vet pronounced it unlikely to be directly connected to his diabetes as all the signs suggested a neurological problem. He had probably lost his faculties when whatever it was happened, and evidently lost control in  other ways too.

After lengthy consultations she (the vet) gave him a series of injections including antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory drug, and a sedative to try to calm him down a little.  She also gave me three diazepam tablets – which I initially thought were for me, as I was panicky too – in case he needed something later on to help him sleep. I was going to suggest that Mog-adon might be better but thought better of it.

It was clear that Columbo had experienced something that had completely deranged his mind, left him unable to see things properly, and put him into a state where he hadn’t the faintest idea where he was. The poor thing was obviously terribly frightened and confused. I think the vet knew that I knew how serious this could be and what I would have to do if the situation didn’t improve. I couldn’t allow him to suffer like that indefinitely.

But, the vet said, take him home, give him some rest, see if he’ll take food and bring him back tomorrow. We’ll see what state he’s in then.

So then I got him home. He carried on as before for about an hour and then either the sedative took effect or he was just knackered, so he climbed into his basket and went to sleep. I had some work to do so I left him on his own for a couple of hours, closing the kitchen door to give him some quiet. All the time I was thinking about soon having to make the decision to have him put down so I didn’t concentrate on my work at all well.

Eventually I went into the kitchen, where his basket is. I half-expected to find him dead. But as soon as I opened the door he climbed out of the basket and came directly to me. Clearly he was regaining some idea of where he was and could even see me. He purred when I reached down to stroke him. I went into the kitchen and he followed, still a bit groggy, but much better than before. I tried him with a bit of food and he wolfed it down quite happily before plodding off back to his basket. Not 100% by any means, but much better than the state he was in a few hours before.

So that’s where the story is so far. With  Columbo tucking in, I realized I hadn’t eaten a thing since breakfast so I’m warming something up now as I write this. I think I could do with a drink too.

For the time being, the emergency appears to be over, but we’ll see how he gets on at the vets tomorrow.

Columbo, resting before an exhausting day's sleep

I think I should post a short message on behalf of Columbo to his many admirers. He’s doing well, having perked up enormously over the past few weeks. When I first moved into my new house at the end of June this year he seemed a bit down, and I couldn’t work out whether it was the dislocation of moving or the non-stop rain that carried on throughout July and August that made him a bit less ebullient than usual. It was probably a mixture. But the fine weather we have been having over the last few weeks led to him spending a lot more time outside and he’s looking and acting like he’s in fine fettle.

Another factor he had to contend with was that when we first moved in we were visited a few times by a strange black-and-white cat who seemed to upset Columbo, although as far as I know they never fought. Columbo is a heavyweight (about 7kg), but such a softy he never wins no matter how much smaller his opponent is. Anyway, after a few visits this other cat obviously decided that there wasn’t much fun to be had at my house so I haven’t seen it again all summer. I think Columbo was glad to see the back of it.

Last weekend, though, another cat turned up and sat on my shed roof. Actually, it’s not really a shed. It’s the old outside toilet that belonged to this house. It no longer has a loo in it, but it’s a sold brick building and very handy for storing things. The only problem with it is a big hole in the roof, which I have yet to get fixed. Cats are smart enough not to fall into holes like that, so this cat was quite secure in his vantage point. He was a very handsome chocolate-coloured long haired cat, and he was one of those cats who just seems to love looking. I’ve met several cats of that type over the years; you can often see them looking out of windows when you pass people’s houses. They sit motionless like small statues, just looking.

Columbo has never been a looker in that way. I think he gets bored easily so a few minutes of watching things and he generally goes to sleep. In fact after a few minutes of anything at all he usually goes to sleep.

But this cat sat on the roof, looking, and for some reason he was driving Columbo to distraction, probably because he was on Columbo’s turf, metaphorically speaking (because there is no actual turf on the toilet roof). He normally doesn’t make that much noise, but he was practically howling in irritation as he paced around the garden. He’s not nimble enough to get onto the roof himself, which is probably just as well because he would probably have come off worst. The visiting cat sat motionless and just carried on looking. It could have been a deliberate attempt to provoke. If so, it worked.

I had to go out at that point, so I left them to it. Columbo has to look after himself sometimes. But when I came back about an hour later the cat was still there on the roof and Columbo was on the lawn, sleeping. Clearly he even gets bored with being annoyed. When I went into the garden Columbo woke up and my presence seemed to scare the invader away. I haven’t seen him since, although he may well have seen me. Cats that like to look are probably looking even when you can’t see them.

Anyway, next week I’ll have to take him to the new vets and get some more medical supplies and food. I hope they’re better than the old ones. I’m just glad that he seems healthy and enjoying life, even to the extent of playing quite a lot with his toy mice from time to time and chasing leaves around the garden whenever it’s windy.

I nearly lost him a couple of years ago when his blood sugar level dived, probably because of too much insulin, and I found him flat out on the kitchen floor struggling for breath. Remembering the stuff I had read on the internet I realised he was in hypoglycemic shock, so I found the bottle of syrup I had bought especially for the purpose and got as much into him as possible before running up to the vets. He was immediately put on a drip and the vet said he was very dangerously ill, but I had done the right thing with the syrup. He stayed at the vet all day and remained unconscious and then was transferred to a veterinary hospital for the night. I really thought he would die, and was even thinking about where I might bury his remains, but the next morning he seemed to be a bit better and I took him home the following night. He gradually recovered and hasn’t had any similar episodes since.

I know he’s old now and needs a lot of looking after. I’ll be very sad when he does pass away. I dread to think how much money he’s cost me or how many things I’ve been unable to do because of his requirements. But it’s worth it. Fellow cat-lovers will understand.