Fiance and I adopted Dilly (formerly Sally) on September 3, 2011. Dilly is the first pet I have ever had (minus Peter and Odin, (my fish) and a hermit crab I accidentally murdered when I was about nine).
I still wake up most days surprised that an animal lives (and sleeps in our bed) with us. For the first couple of weeks I was only able to pick her up like a sack of flour (arms under belly, flip cat up, hold awkwardly to chest) and I was basically afraid to give her treats because I didn't like her mouth near my hands. Now though, I pick her up like a small toddler and I have given her so many treats that she gained two pounds and the vet told us no more treats. Whoops. Since then though, she lost the two pounds and we got a nicer vet in Brooklyn who loves Dilly even though Dilly peed all over the exam room the first time we brought her. The vet said Dilly is a great weight and was generally nicer than that mean vet in Long Island. Anyway...
Dilly's name is Dilly because Fiance wanted to name her Pickles. Or Miss Cleo (I said OK to Cleo, but Fiance said she had to be Miss Cleo. I said no way). We called her Tink or the first hour she was home, but 60 minutes in Fiance said he didn't like it because it was monosyllabic. Seriously, Fiance? All of this to say that we talked for about three hours and some how came up with Dilly.
Dilly has three legs. She lost her front, left leg in June of 2011 when she was found as a stray on the streets of Brooklyn (I'm trying to make her sound bad-ass, how am I doing?). She had a compound fracture (that's when your bone pokes through your skin) and rubber bands around her leg! They (whoever found her) brought her into the animal hospital and because she was so snugly (read: not actually bad ass) and "sought affection" (so says her records) they did not put her down! Hooray! Instead, the amputated her leg and shoulder (which was infected and had maggots in it...is there a word more upsetting than maggots? I don't think so) and gave her to the rescue organization where we found her!
Dilly is basically the best cat ever. And I'm not just saying that because she is the first cat I've ever had. Even Fiance, who has had a lot of cats in his life, says she is the best cat ever. She is snugly and she plays and she knows when you are sad and she cheers you up!
Some people have blogs where they post about their babies/children. Fiance and I don't have babies/children yet...we have Dilly. So I'll post about her. Sorry in advance if this makes me a crazy cat lady but ummm I love her a lot, OK? Glad we're on the same page!
PS-Fiance took that picture of her. I have about 500 others if you are interested!
We adopted Mimosa (Mim for short) in January of 2013.
An important fact to know about our adoption of Mim is that John wasn't home when we decided to get her. He was away for the weekend and two of my best friends, Stephanie and Becca came with me to meet her. I had no intention of taking her home that day without John meeting her first, but I couldn't leave without her. So I, one of the most nervous people in the world, adopted a kitten alone and just hoped that it would work out.
Before we got Mim she was diagnosed with Cerebellar Hypoplasia, so she was always a little "dizzy" as her vet says. At the end of February though, she really started falling after not walking very far at all and then it got to the point where she couldn't bring her self to her food bowl or the litter box in the kitchen, which is a non-carpeted area.
We got new curtains in the kitchen for our sliding doors to the deck that week and as we were taking down the old ones we realized whoops, she had peed on the bottom of them (which were on the ground because they were too long). She couldn't get herself across the kitchen to the litter box (needless to say I flipped out for numerous reasons).
The next weekend, we rearranged our entire living room so that Mim could have her own, totally carpeted space to eat, sleep and pee on (meaning we moved the litter box, not that she was allowed to pee on our rug). She was good for about a day but then she started falling in the litter box, which got really messy. John got the showering situation down to a 90 second process but seriously we were giving her a bath nearly every day. Exhausting. AND now she couldn't hold herself up at all.
We finally took her to a vet Mim's foster Mom recommended (after I had diagnosed her via the internet with everything from neuropathy to diabetes) and 45 minutes and more money than I'd like to admit later, he basically said there was nothing wrong with her other than her CH. SO frustrating.
We have taken her for a second opinion since, and the general consensus seems to be that her nervous system didn't grow with her body when she hit a growth spurt around 9 months old. We put her in the litter box now and she's on a pretty good (accident free) schedule. She also seems to have figured out that rolling is her best course of movement at this point, and she's getting so good at it!
We aren't sure about what the future holds for Mim's health, but at this point we're focused on giving her the best life possible. For now that means lots of snuggles, medical care when she needs it and tons of spoiling her rotten.
