Busy!

Sorry I haven’t had a chance to post lately… I’ve been so busy!

I had a graduation ceremony for my second bachelors degree (commerce to add to the fine arts!) and then took a well-deserved trip to the Central-ish North Island with Oli, my best friend Priya and her husband Therushen while they’re over from South Africa.

Me at my Official graduation ceremony with flowers from Oli.

Oli and me and my Maori graduation ceremony.

On the gondola up to the luge. Oli like, “oh gawd, what have I signed up for?”

On the skii lift back up to the luge.

Enjoying Maori Kapahaka and waiata performance at Rotorua.

I-Spy: find the Englishman and the two non-locals.

When we got back to Auckland after our trip, naturally we went back to Priya’s mother’s house for curry. Priya then dropped Oli and me back at my parents’ and stopped in to see Maggie.

Maggie was so happy! She loves having visitors, and absolutely loves Priya. She’s probably well aware that, although Priya loves her to pieces, she is also allergic to cats. The visit perked Maggie right up. She was doing the rounds, making sure she got pats from everyone there. She’s started to become attached to Oliver too. She hasn’t known him as long as Priya, but has taken to him reasonably well. Still though, Priya is the favourite.

Once it was bed time, I felt really guilty about being  busy and away for so long so I let Maggie sleep in with me. Good thing I did too, because the day after I got back was the coldest day of the year so far. I think it got down to around 5 degrees Celsius overnight. It’s since climbed back up again. Poor Maggie. She was so incredibly cuddly and clingy.

“PLEASE don’t leave me behind again…”

Sooo comfy!

A couple of days ago, she started eating again! She’s not eating enough to allow that to be her only source of food, so we’re still syringe feeding her, but at least she has an interest. She eats a bit from one plate, then moves along the plates until she’s had a bit of everything. Then she goes around the corner to have a drink of Pims (water). All of the cats seem to like that particular bowl of water for some reason. D’arcy had to learn yesterday to wait his turn. He didn’t do a great job at that.

With us still syringe feeding her, it means we can easily give her her anti-nausea and her anti-inflammatory medication.

EATING!!!

D’arcy didn’t like being told to ‘wait’ so we had to get another bowl. Note the bowl in the bottom right corner of the photo. Yet, he still wants the one MAGGIE has.

She’s due for her next chemo in a week or two.

Maggie has a visitor :)

Maggie has a visit from my best friend, Priya

No more feeding tube!

We had another update from the vet today: Maggie‘s been bright and cuddly and wants pats from all the vet staff. She’s started to feed on her own! She licks all of the gravy and tries to eat the meat but then gags. At least she’s trying. The fact that she’s interested in and is trying food herself is a huge positive step.

Maggie was curled up in a ball in her cage when we first got there today, which is the first time we’ve seen her do that since she’s been there. The surgeon had taken her feeding tube out. She still has a bandage around her neck, but it might be off by tomorrow. There’s just a small hole where it was and they’re going to leave it to heal on its own. She’s not too fazed by it; she’s more bothered by the bandage around her front leg.

She was super affectionate with both me and Mum this time. She scratched the hell out of my arms, and had a nibble on my wrist a couple of times. She was also quite talkative, especially when she felt she wasn’t getting enough attention. She even used the dirtbox and had a bite to eat while we were there.

“GET IN THE CAGE!”

Having a nibble

Loving the face scratchies

Having a love

Going batshit insane

Cuddles

More cuddles

“Helloooooooo!”

Loves with Mum

More loves with Mum

More face scratchies

“GET IN MY CAGE!!”

“I love my mummy”

Eating all by herself!

All going well, she can come home tomorrow, but she’ll still be on a series of meds, and we have to keep her confined so she doesn’t try to do anything stupid like run around or jump up onto things. We’re looking into either hiring or buying a crate for her. I saw a series of soft crates of varying sizes on the Animates website, so Mum will take a look at them properly online, then might call and ask if any branches near us have them in stock. Maggie tends to rub her face (including her stitches) all over the bars of the cage she’s currently in, which is probably not the best for her healing.

We were told though, that if she goes on a ‘hunger strike’ for 48 hours, we need to get in touch with the vet as soon as possible, because she has kidney failure and she will go downhill rapidly.

It was a bit sad today. The cat in the cage next to Maggie had to be put down, and they took him away to do that while we were there When the cage came back soon after, it was empty. He seemed to have been hit by a car. He looked fine on the outside, but apparently he had pelvic trauma. There was also a large Alsatian coming out of anaesthesia, and it was crying. It sounded so sad… poor thing.

Still affectionate

Maggie is still very affectionate. She’s been loving having brushies and head scratchies, and responds well to me she responds OK to Mum too, but I think it’s still a wee bit of a case of ‘once bitten, twice shy’.

She’s having trouble with her feeding tube and is suffering from nausea and excessive salivation; they have done an X-ray and can’t see anything abnormal, so it’s possible her esophagus is a bit inflamed. She’s been given some Losec and Metaclopramide to see if that will help. She’s been moved back into the area she was originally in.

If the salivation doesn’t ease up overnight, then they’re going to remove her feeding tube and see if she’ll eat on her own. The surgeon doesn’t have high hopes for this, and if he’s right then he’s going to insert a feeding tube directly into her stomach. This is less irritating and hopefully she’ll tolerate it better. Even if she does start eating on her own after the new feeding tube is inserted, she’ll have to have it for at least 10 days.

Big steps!

OMG so much of an improvement today! She was practically a vegetable yesterday but today she responded to us by purring her heart out, kneading the blankie, and aggressively headbutting my arm while I was brushing her. She was walking around the cage and it took me a few attempts to get her not to try and cuddle up to me when I was trying to leave. At one point she fell asleep on my hand.

Moved!

Maggie has been moved to a much larger cage in a quiet room just for cats (no doggies allowed ).

The vets have given her a dirtbox, and told us she has actually been using it every time she has to go to the toilet, which is great. There’s quite a lip on the box that would take a bit of energy to get over, so it shows she’s getting a bit more energy back. She was more active in the cage today, resting facing one way, and then deciding she’d rather be facing the other way. She’s still off her food and still has her feeding tube, but she’s had the IV fluid line removed. That also included the bandage which has left her a wee bit more comfortable. She’s still pretty miserable, and every now and then lets out a bit of a howl, but she’s on painkillers, antibiotics, and antiemetics, so she shouldn’t be in pain or nauseated. She’s still not able to have her own blankie or her lizard yet, but I’m hoping that she’ll be allowed it soon. I think it’s probably to keep things as clean as possible. I’d been gently stroking her forehead, so by the time we left she was quite comfortable and was settling in for a nap.

A little more ‘with it’

Just got back from visiting Maggie May. She’s a little more ‘with it’ today. She meowed a few times, which was great to hear. She still has her feeding tube and fluid line. The fluid line in particular is irritating her, and she keeps trying to shake the bandage off her leg. I see that as being a good sign, since she was doing that with the bandage on her leg she had the week before her surgery. She’s a bit wary of Mum and Dad… She tends to shuffle away and look out the window when they pat her or talk to her, I guess because they were always the ones administering her medication and I was the one administering cuddles she shuffles right around to me when I talk to her, and seemed to enjoy me scratching the good side of her face; she’s always loved face scratchies. Overall, she’s still got a long way to go, but had made slight improvements on yesterday

Oh, and she has a kennel mate named Ping Pong