TOPSY TURVY TIMES WITH TILLY
My cat is a rescue cat and as I am elderly myself when I adopted her I said I’d take an older cat ending up with Tilly who now is 13. Two old girls together. We both got off to a dodgy start in 2023. I had taken Tilly for a monthly check-up at the end of 2022 and she seemed to be doing satisfactorily but in the first week in January she had a funny turn. I phoned the vet’s and was told to bring her in. The vet I saw didn’t think she was seriously ill but gave her some treatment. Unluckily after the visit which was quite late on a Friday afternoon the local taxi companies were occupied for the next couple of hours, so I decided to walk part of the carrying the kitty, get a bus for the middle stretch, before walking the last leg to my house.
On the last part of the journey Tilly’s weight plus of her carrier strained my lower back. Briefly, my back has been stiff ever since though a physiotherapist has given me some exercises which do seem to be helping.
The reason Tilly has a monthly appointment is a renal problem. When Tilly had her scheduled January appointment the vet she saw noticed she was somewhat inflexible and suggested she might have feline arthritis. The poor thing had rather neglected grooming herself and I couldn’t help much with my rigid back. The vet was able to give Tilly a feline arthritis injection treatment which has seemed to assist her.
I managed to locate a local pet groomer. On Saturdays the groomer offers a collection service whereby her husband will collect a pet if reimbursed the money for the cost of petrol so I went with that arrangement. When returning Tilly her driver explained that the fur on her back had become so matted that his wife had needed to shave off some of the tangles. So my feline friend was Tilly of the tonsure (except the tonsure was on her back not her head) for a time. Tilly did look better for the grooming. I’m trying to get her groomed professionally periodically these days and the fur is growing back.
However, I really had a scare about Tilly over the summer. During one of her aforementioned monthly trips to be monitored at the vets’ surgery, the vet who saw her noticed that she had a mass in her mouth and suggested an exploratory operation. I was in a quandary. Operations can be risky for elderly cats but if her condition was serious it would be best to know and for her to have a treatment plan.
Tilly was booked in to have the operation. I was instructed not to feed her after a certain time the night before. The next morning I discovered that somehow she had muscled her way out of the cat door. I rang the vets’ surgery for advice and was told not to ring her in that day in case she had caught a bird or mouse and eaten it so the procedure was rescheduled.
Tilly’s delivery to the surgery for the rescheduled appointment went without mishap. A lady I know happened to be visiting the vet’s at the same time and kindly dropped me home. In the early afternoon I had a phone call from the vet who had undertaken the operation. Tilly had stopped breathing spontaneously while under anaesthetic so they had had to ventilate her. They cut the operation somewhat short so she would not be unconscious too long — they removed the mass but carried out less dental work than they had anticipated. They were going to have the mass (or at least a biopsy) examined to see if it was ominous. I’m prone to high blood pressure anyway; I’m sure it rocketed through the roof that day.
You can imagine I was like the proverbial cat on a hot tin roof waiting for the time to collect her. Fortunately a lady who lives down the road was kind enough to drive me there and back. I was glad to see Tilly awake and to bring her home with her medication. She was a bit sleepy afterwards but still wanted food.
Really I lived on my nerves the next week or so while awaiting results. I felt very apprehensive on the day I took Tilly to the surgery to get her results. Fortunately the mass was benign although the vet said there was a chance it could recur. With that news I felt calmer than I had since before I was informed that Tilly needed to have the procedure done. After my “lift” had run me home the cat and I both had a relatively relaxed day.
The monthly visits to the vets’ surgery have gone uneventfully since then (except that someone vandalised the car of the lady who had been taking me to the veterinary surgery so she can’t do it anymore).
Last winter was quite cold so I had let Tilly sleep in my bedroom as I kept the heater on at night during any very cold snaps. Some new neighbours moved into the house adjoining mine and I think the female half of the couple must be a light sleeper. The party wall between the houses is thin and noise carries at night; it seems the lady had been kept awake by Tilly meowing. This was in spring rather than the depth of winter so I shut Tilly out of my bedroom at night after that to try to resolve the matter.
That seemed to do the trick. There was one time though that I had gone to bed to rest my back at about 5–6 pm and drifted off to sleep. I woke up some hours later to some loud meowing. Her ladyship (i.e. Tilly) had brought a mouse into the house as I hadn’t shut the cat door. The mouse was still alive and made an escape. I couldn’t find it and thought I’d make attempt to get it in the morning when I was refreshed.
Somehow I awoke that night, switched on the light and there was the mouse on my bed staring at me bold as brass. I let out a screech, tried to bundle the mouse into a cloth and put it outside. I’m not 100% sure I caught the mouse though I haven’t seen it since. Oddly enough the couple next door didn’t hear me shrieking — they must have been slumbering soundly as I thought a loud cry in the middle of the night would have been a nuisance.
At the moment things are jogging along quietly though I don’t want to tempt Providence. Tilly’s next check-up is in just under two weeks so I’m crossing my fingers she gets a clean bill of health.
Here is a picture of Tilly from a couple of years ago.
