Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [31]
“The shelter contacted a couple other vet schools, and Dr. Klopp got back in touch with them,” says Linda. Lisa Klopp, DVM, is an assistant professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Illinois. “She thought she could do something for him.”
That’s when Linda first heard about the cat. The shelter wanted him to go into a foster home until treatment could be scheduled, to avoid any possible exposure to illnesses he might pick up there. “I’d given them my name the previous fall to foster older cats, but I’d not heard from them until Sandy Robelia called me,” says Linda. The situation seemed oddly coincidental, too, because Linda had only recently lost one of her own cats—solid black, named Natasha—to a brain tumor.
Linda had misgivings about taking the sick cat at first. “I asked Sandy, How can take this guy and say I’ll foster temporarily and then put him back in the shelter?—There is no way I can do that! But likewise, I also knew I couldn’t afford the bill.”
The kitty came to live with her on Easter Sunday. He had several small seizures that week but they were quite different than what she’d experienced with Natasha. “She’d have a grand mal seizure, then pretty much recover from it. He just looked like he was stretching. Then he’d lose control of his bladder, and really couldn’t move for a couple days, so I’d have to hand feed him.”
Once Dr. Klopp reviewed the records from Purdue, she wanted to see the cat right away. “She felt he was in imminent danger of hemorrhaging,” says Linda. “The tumor had grown down near the brain stem, and she didn’t know if she could get it all, or if it would be malignant.”
Although the doctor was booked for the next three weeks, she moved him ahead of everybody else, and performed surgery the day after he was admitted. “We got the call and Dr. Klopp was absolutely ecstatic,” says Linda. The tumor came out—all of it—in two pieces. Tests showed it was benign.
Dr. Klopp became very attached to him while he was at the university hospital, and once he left ICU, he’d often be found sitting in her lap. “When we went down to pick him up she looked like she was ready to cry,” says Linda. “She was calling him Zoobie and he seemed to respond to that, so Zoobie is his name now.”
The shelter footed the bill. “They sent out a special appeals letter after the surgery. It all happened so quickly they really didn’t have the time before,” says Linda. “Within a month they had more than enough to cover Zoobie’s bill.”
Linda took him back down for his six-week checkup. He was fine. But she had fallen in love with the cat, and couldn’t bring herself to take Zoobie back to the shelter. “I went ahead and adopted him.”
Zoobie is by all estimates around 10 or 11 years old, but Linda says since his brain surgery, he acts like a three-year-old. “He goes rollicking around the house with my younger cats and everything amazes him. He loves playing with the cat dancer toy,” she says, “he just about goes berserk for that.”
She was a bit concerned about him fitting in with the other animals. “He has no problem with the dog, or with the other cats, he’s just incredible,” she says. After ten years of shelter life, the black cat is starting his next decade with a permanent home, a new name and a family that loves him. Zoobie is making the most of it.
Visit the Veterinarian: Well-Pet Exams
No matter what her age is, your cat needs a veterinary exam at least once a year. Vaccinations used to be given automatically each year, and the cat received a checkup at that time. More recently, many veterinarians believe annual vaccines aren’t necessary, but since cats age so much more quickly than people do, an annual “well-pet exam” is essential to ensure she maintains good health. The veterinarian