My twelve-year-old cat, Rosie, suffers from a condition called Luxated Patellas, where her knees dislocate.  Lately, she has been very bad, limping around, mostly resting.  We had an appointment for her to see the veterinarian on Wednesday.  On Tuesday afternoon I mentioned to Grant, “You know, I have not seen Rosie all day today.”  We started looking around and by Tuesday night we were tearing our place apart, looking everywhere.  It had been twenty-four hours since we had seen her.  I was trying not to cry, I had to give Tyler a bath, feed him, put him to bed, etc.  For those unfamiliar, cats will often go to dark hiding place to die.  Grant was in our bedroom in mourning.  I was kind of in shock, numb.  Rosie had never hid like this before, especially for so long.

On Wednesday morning there was still no sign of her.  As I was putting Tyler’s shoes on for school I couldn’t take it any more.  I ask Grant to finish up with Tyler and I had to retreat into my bedroom.  I couldn’t believe she was gone.  I blamed myself:  too many steroids, too much pain, not bringing her to the vet quickly enough, etc.  I cancelled my appointments with my Primary Care Physician and my therapist.  I was in no mood to do anything.  I was eulogizing Rosie in my head for this blog.

Shortly after 9:30 in the morning, Grant burst through the bedroom door.  “She’s alive, she’s alive!”, and practically threw her on the bed! We never found her hiding place, Grant was on his computer actually searching for a charity to donate to in her name when he heard a limping step.  He picked her up to make sure she was not her lookalike sister.

We un-cancelled our vet appointment.  The news turned out to be overall positive.  She is way too old for surgery so that allays any guilt I have that we can’t afford it.  We are going to wean her off the steroids and do glucosimine shots.  One shot every four days for six times and then once a month.  The vet seemed to think this would help her immensely.  I gave her the first shot at the office.  Years of injecting myself with biologics for my Rheumatoid Arthritis has made me pretty experienced, although I don’t like hurting my cat.  I can only hope that she will understand.

I am happy to have Rosie “back”, as she has been a constant companion to me in my own illnesses and has given me so much support.