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Coloration: Black and White
Likes: Turkey, outside, patches of sunshine on the floor, the comb, her mama (in that order!)
Pet-Peeves: Strangers, loud noises, trips to the vet, Emily the Pug...
Favorite Toy: Her pungee (one of mama's make up sponges)
Favorite Nap Spot: On her pink birdy blanky in mama's bedroom
Favorite Food: Turkey, turkey and turkey! Sally is a very picky eater and has Irritable Bowel Syndrome. She only likes turkey and chicken but the chicken has to be fresh or it makes her sick.
Skills: For such a timid, skittish cat, Sally can be VERY determined when it comes to getting something she wants (see her list of likes).
Dwells:
indoors
Arrival Story: Sally was a birthday gift. I was very depressed and needed something to love so my friend got her from a neighbor that takes in strays and feral cats. Her middle name is "Maria" because she was found along with several of her littermates living under a dumpster behind a mexican restaurant. She was only 3 months old when she came to live with me. She was so scared of everything at first that she would not come out from under my bed. It took lots of time and patience to get her to trust me. It took weeks before she would come out of my bedroom on her own. She has come a long way, but she's still a little shy. From the very beginning, I could see what a good natured girl she is in spite of her rough start in life. She has definitely won a permanent place in my heart. I love my Sally Maria!!
Bio: Sally was very sickly growing up. When she was 8 months old, I found out she had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. I was devastated!! She has been taking heart medication twice a day since she was 2 and we have to go see the vet every year for ultrasounds and tests to make sure all is as well as it can be. She has been a happy and relatively healthy kitty! When I met my husband, it took Sally a while to warm up to him. When I moved in with him and his kitty, it took a long time for her to relax and I worried that I might have set her back, but now she's a little more confident and friendly than she used to be but will always remain a little on the shy side. But that's okay, it just adds to her charm for those who know and love her!
UPDATE: Sally was diagnosed with low grade intestinal lymphoma April '08. It all started with a persistently high white blood cell count and quickly escalated to weight loss, vomiting and diarrhea. She is now taking Leukeran every other day (the Prednisolone and Methylprednisolone caused her lungs to fill with fluid) for the lymphoma, B12 shots, Diltiazem, Enalapril and Furosemide for her heart. At the end of the summer she will get a follow up cardiac ultrasound to see if her heart has stabilized enough to try one last steroid for the lymphoma. She has been doing pretty well, with good days and not so good days. We just try to remember to take it one day at a time. She's a little kitty with a mighty big obstacle in her path.
UPDATE: As of August 30, 2008 Sally is officially in remission!!!
Lives Remaining: 5 of 9
Forums Motto: Mama's baby! Catster Local Spots I've Marked: Veterinary Specialty Hospital, A B C Veterinary Group The Groups I'm In: !!!!!ALL AGAINST CANCER!!!!!, *HAPPY KITTIES*, 10 YEARS OR OVER??? DOGS or CATS, Black And White Units, Cats Surviving Cancer Support Group, Feline Lymphoma, Flying Furlendas, HAVEN for the Economically Challenged, Heart and Soul, Heart To Heart, jeepers-dinner-dance-night club-hotelev, LIVING with cancer, Muppet's Bucket (HQ-approved fundraiser), Olde Furts, PAWS Angels WAGS for Kindness, Pawsome Pages, Royal Canin® Felines, Soft on Cats. Hard on Fleas., The (Endless) Summer of Scooter, The FURminator® Group For Cats
The Last Forum I Posted In: Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.
My furriend Miss Mittens tagged me for the "2009 Get to Know your Pals" Tag game.
1. What is the color of your collar?
I wore a collar all my life, right up until I started getting sick from my lymphoma. When I was just a little kitten, mama kept losing track of me so she bought me a little red collar with a bell on it. When I was about 6 months old, we realized that red wasn't really my color so from then on out, it was always purple, with a purple bell, a silver heart shaped ID tag and a silver medical alert tag.
2. What kind of food do you eat?
We always have out a 50/50 mix of Royal Canin IVD Duck and Green Pea dry and K/D dry. When I take my pills I get a heaping spoonful of Fancy Feast Ocean Whitefish. Every once in a while we get Tiki Cat as a special treat.
3. What are your favorite treats?
Greenies and Halo Liv a Little chicken treats.
4. Do you have a Valentine or a significant other.
Yes, his name is Riley (he lets me call him Riley Wiley, aka "The Mighty Hunter"). His sisfur Flowie set us up on Valentines Day and not long after, he purrposed. He is my best furriend!
5. Do you get table scraps?
Oh boy! Man is the biggest sucker! All I have to do is tap him on the leg and he'll share whatever he's eating with me. I'll try little bites of things but what I REALLY like is chicken, turkey and ham. Mmmmm....
6. What is your favorite toy?
I don't play much any more, but when I was younger my favorite toys were my mama's make up sponges. She called them my "Pungees".
7. When is your birthday?
We don't know my exact birthday since I was feral so mama and I decided on November 3, 1994 (since I was 12 weeks old when I came to live with mama for her birthday)
8. How many times a day do you eat?
Many many times. I am a grazer and snack all day long.
9. Do you have a favorite color?
Purple
10. Do you hope all your pals put this in their diary?
Yes!
Mama started writing this diary entry for me on Thanksgiving night. She's added a little bit to it every night because she can't sit very long to type. She says it's my little brofur-to-be hurting her back. I'm not sure what she's talking about because I don't see anything anywhere near her back. Huh.... Go figure....
SALLY MARIA'S REASONS TO BE THANKFUL 2009
I am thankful for my health. 2008 was such a rough year for me. There were several times that year mama thought she might be losing me. For a while it seemed as if my heart, kidneys and lymphoma were all in a race to see who could take me to the finish line. There have been a couple of bumps in my road this year but, overall, I have been feeling better than I have in a long time.
I am thankful for the wonderful vets and techs who have helped keep me going. Dr. Hansche is my favorite and makes me purr every time I see him now. Without his loving care, I don't think I'd be here.
I am thankful for my mama and the man. They have worked so hard to keep me healthy. They have done without to make sure I get the food and medicines I need. They treat me like a princess and make me feel special every single day. I love them with all my heart.
I am thankful for all my wonderful Catster furriends. You are a constant source of love and support. You have been the candle to light my path during some very dark times. You help me celebrate my wins and make my losses hurt a little less. I am grateful for every single one of you and your wonderful pawrents.
I am thankful for my wonderful furriance Riley and his incredible family. He is my rock and makes me feel like a kitten again.
I am thankful that my furriend Miss Mittens is doing so well and that she invited me to be an admin for the Lymphoma group. It is difficult to battle cancer, but it helps when you have furriends who are in the same boat as you. I'm sending a special purrayer that all the current members are here to celebrate Thankgiving together next year.
I am thankful for all of my furriends in the Olde Furts group. No one can understand what it's like to get older better than other kitties 10 and over. The constant exchange of love and support is one of my most favorite things about Catster. I have met some very special kitties in that group, furriends I will keep in my heart furrever and always.
I am especially thankful for the wonderful Bridge angels who watch over me so closely. Tigger, Abby, Jazzi, Sheppy, Rufus, Zack, Cole, Buddie, Lola, Scootie, Dusty, Tyler, Alex, Amelia, Macallan, Minxy and my special dog guardian angel Elizabeth - what would I do without you all? I look forward to the day when I can look each one of you in the eye and say "THANK YOU!"
And, at this time of year, I am thankful for whoever invented the electric blanket. I have one to sleep on in front of the fireplace and another on mama and man's bed. The heat helps keep my arthritis from being too much of a pain (pun not intended!) and it makes me one content kitty.
I hope your Thanksgivings were good and I'm looking forward to sharing the holidays with you all. Sending lots of love and hugs to each and every one of you!
I especially hate saying good bye to special furriends.
Today I have to say good bye to Lola, a Good Girl who was also a good furriend.
I was very upset when my furriend Scooter made her journey to the Bridge earlier this year. I always considered her The Queen of the Olde Furts and, truth be told, thought of her as a mentor in how to age gracefully. She taught me the value of freeze dried chicken treats, what glucosamine can do for arthritis, and just how to be a classy lady in general.
Scootie is one smart girl. To help heal her parents hearts, she sent them the lovely Lola. I know her parents fell in love with her, but all the rest of us did too. Lola didn’t let her rough past diminish her capacity to love and be loved and over the next eight months, she proved to all of us that it’s never too late to have a good life.
A good life for a Good Girl.
We were completely hooked on Lola’s videos that showed her Kung Fu fighting skills, her complete defiance of gravity and the things that some other Olde Furts might hesitate to do because of their age or health issues. Mama mentioned many times how pretty Lola was and how you could become lost in those beautiful Burmese eyes of hers. I was never jealous because Lola had become a good furriend of mine. She was always one of the first ones to comment on my diary entries, either celebrating my good times or sympathizing with me during my bad times. I know she was like this with a lot of kitties here on Catster, which just made her even more special.
About the only remnants of her past she couldn’t completely escape were her health issues. Even though she was only a petite 4 lbs, she met the challenges in front of her like a mighty lioness, fierce and unflinching. When she started feeling bad a couple of weeks ago, we figured it was just another bump in the road and that soon she’d recover and be back to being everyone’s Good Girl again. We were shocked to see that this morning our lovely Lola had made her journey to the Bridge.
Mama’s eyes are getting leaky again as she writes this. She’s cried as much for Lola as she did for Scootie. She cries too for Lola’s parents, for the short time they had this lovely little angel in their lives. The one thing that makes her heart hurt a little less is knowing how wonderful the last eight months of Lola’s life were.
Unfortunately, every Olde Furt has an expiration date. All we can hope is that it’s later rather than sooner, but whenever that date is, we all have to remember to live every day to the fullest, to enjoy our lives and our time together and to never forget to let our loved ones know how special they are.
In other words, we need to live like Lola.
I’m sure that there were plenty of Olde Furt angels waiting to meet Lola, chief among them her sister Scooter. I’m sure Calvin was there to give his special little pal her heart basket. I have a feeling Lola’s heart basket is just crammed full of hearts. I know there’s a big one in there from me.
I also have a sneaky suspicion that Lola’s first meal up there will be Popeye’s Chicken. Enjoy it, Good Girl. You deserve it.
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