Sookie came into our lives when we bought our current home in April 2010. She was owned by the previous owners of our house. She was always in our garden and would dive in the front door whenever we opened it, so we tried to contact them through the estate agents but the message passed on was that a neighbour had agreed to take her in.
Sookie would always come to our house and cry to come in, so we persisted in refusing her to try and reinforce that this was no longer her home. It was difficult as she is such a lovely sweet natured cat, and I'm a big softy.
Two weeks later she collapsed in our garden and we rushed her to the vets. She was severely dehydrated, malnourished, had various infections and was riddled with fleas and worms. She also had a reoccurring prolapsed rectum. We contacted the neighbours who did not know anything about the cat other than her age and name as they actually owned her brother. They had not agreed to take her in. We also discovered that the previous owners of our house had run-ins with the RSPCA. So it became quite obvious that Sookie had been abandoned. Some people are just plain old evil.
The vets were not optimistic about her chances of survival, and told us we should be prepared for her to pass on very soon. They offered to put her to sleep for us. I've nursed many animals in shelters and wildlife hospitals and could not possibly just give up on an animal, so we decided to take her home and do what could for her. She was 16 years old at this point.
Sookie went from strength to strength, and fast became a member of the family. She used to cower at the sight of brooms and mops, was scared of feet and boots so we surmised she had also been physically abused. After a year or so she would chase brooms and you were likely to trip over her as she had entirely lost her fear of feet.
She has had two good years with us where she was happy and healthy. Although she is totally deaf and a little senile she still went out hunting, slept in the sunshine on our bed, and lived a good life. But a few months ago she began to lose weight dramatically.
We visited the vet who was perplexed. She did not match the symptoms of any classic illnesses. Her diet is good and she eats plenty. She does not over-drink. Her kidneys are not enlarged. Her thyroid functions normally, and so forth. But her heart is erratic. It is very slow for a cat, 120-140bpm and it often misses beats or briefly speeds up. I got my text books out from uni, and searched. I came across taurine deficiency, which is no longer very common due to improved modern cat foods. So our vet didn't think to check for it. It turns out her heart is so damaged there is absolutely no chance of her getting better. Such is the case in a cat with prolonged deficiency in taurine. So we decided on no treatment other than steroids to help with her weight loss.
The previous owners kept a number of dogs in questionable conditions, and were not financially well off. So we assume she was probably fed dog food over a very long period. In which case it's a miracle she has survived to the age she is. She is now on borrowed time. She continues to lose weight and is now only about 3lbs. Three weeks ago the vets said they thought it likely she would die within hours or at most days. She's proved more stubborn than that! She is often weak and sleepy. She remains mobile and does not appear to be in any pain, she is still very much enjoying her food and cuddles. But it's obvious she doesn't have long left.
She's a wonderful cat and I'm so glad to have her as part of our family. She's sweet and affectionate, and a little bit smelly too
and she's ours. I doubt she remembers anything of her past.
