PIXIE IS HOME!!!!!!!! OMG! by mum Steph

*Newsflash 16th June 2010*

Hi all!... well I just want to update you that this very lunchtime 16th June 2010 my Pixie lovebug has been brought home alive and well to me!!!! Cue [scream!!!!!!]

I am soooo happy, words really can't express!

16 days missing and I was having a terrible day of feeling sick with worry at work. I even went to see Sex and the City 2 last night at the cinema to try and take my mind of her but it was so rubbish I kept staring at the ceiling feeling sick again, remembering my Pix playing on the landing the last night I saw her. There was even a beautiful and massive slither of moon and a twilight and it just made me pine for her. I couldn't even eat the Ben & Jerry's icecream I bought! That's being lovesick for you!

So back to today... a man called my other half to say he thought Pixie was in his garage... (what a surprise... a garage!) He had seen her a couple of times today but couldn't get near her to be fully sure but had her cornered in anyway. (I am yet to get the full story but I understand there were holes to get in and out) Basically this is across the busy B road that is Cottingham Road in Hull and right near the Gardeners Arms pub, where there are a few lock up's and this was one where a furniture maker was based.

My partner left work straight away and wasn't getting his hopes up that it was her as we’ve had a couple of let down sightings and she was hiding when he got there. After calling for a while and shaking the bic's, she came out and ran to him miaowing. He scooped her up and hugged her, she recognised him straight away! The man who found her who had a cat himself then got her a box for the short walk across the road to where we live.

She was within 300 yards of our house the whole time!!

My partner was going to surprise me when I got home from work but had to call me in the end and it was one of those serious calls, where your manager says... someone's on the work phone for you and your stomach drops thinking er ...what bad news is it? He just said “I have a little brown cat here, boxed and sealed up in our living room!” I just couldn't believe it for 5 mins and kept asking if he was sure? Then I got a round of applause at work. One colleague said, are you going to cheer the hell up now?

I took an extended lunch to see her and when I walked in the room I did have a little cry with joy on hugging her! She is very skinny after 16 days on her own and has a slight wound on her hind leg but the vet checked it out and it was like a cat bite. She washed it down and gave her a shot of antibiotics and said she was a lucky cat. Her sister Firefly hissed at her when I introduced them so I need some Feliway stat. Sisters hey! tsk! Firefly is still not happy now and is very upset the dominant one who smells funny is back again!

So there you are guys... I was seriously giving up hope and felt sick all the time with worry but there are miracles after all and this is the best day ever... really! I can now join the gang who say DON'T GIVE UP HOPE and my cat was a female spay who really shouldn't have wondered off! Best of luck to all of you with a missing pet! I seriously know how you are feeling. A collar and GPS for Pix. Well GPS maybe for xmas!

Have uploaded a pic of Pix taken this lunch time happy at home!

Day 12 in the heartbroken house.. by Steph Mum

Pixie is still not home and no sign of her. We got a call from a lady yesterday saying she saw a cat like her a few streets away, which would have involved her crossing a busy road though it would be quiet at 3-6am I suppose. Anyway we went up and down said street in car and then Iain my boyf spotted a tortie... but it wasn't Pix. :( We spotted another couple of torties on our car travels locally and I realised we didn't have the only tortie in Hull after all. But still she's easier to spot than black or black and white or tabbies I suppose. I went into town this morning but couldn't get this sick kick in the stomach feeling out of me, the longing that I have to hold my Pix in my arms and tell her its ok now, she's safe. Today is a sunny day here and the birds are singing. Firefly is out chirping and jingling her bell, rolling around looking for attention, which I gladly give her. I'm sat in my patio on the pub bench and feel like if she was around she would sense me better here than inside but i'm going to do some more postering in a minute. I went for a pizza last night and the shop and others in that row had all taken down my poster! I had a go at the Pizza man saying I am relying on these and I'll tell him when she is found. He cheerfully said bring another in and we will put it back up. i need more lamination pouches too.

Sometimes I am thinking the worst and then imagining her in a shed somewhere after 12 days and that is not good. The council hasn't called finding any microchipped dead cats so that is good. Haven't called vets or RSPCA since last week and advert has run out on Gumtree. She is listed on www.nationalpetregister.org though under Yorkshire. I'm having trouble with laughing and the idea of letting myself have fun as I can't bear to think that she is scared and lonely somewhere. It just feels really wrong. Firefly doesn't walk further than 4 or 5 houses towards the open end of my 'dead end' street and I just can't understand why Pix, a happy, spayed cat who has lived here all her life would just walk off and not come back. She is really hard to catch at the best of times so I can't see that someone got her to come to them to steal. She is very curious though always going in wardrobes and nooks and crannies. I feel weird going and asking neighbours again to look in their sheds. The street knows she is missing and we have posters in the car windows and in our house window.

It is the first match of the England vs USA World Cup today and I don't like football but everyone around is exited and I wish I could join in the good moods. Its summer and I looked forward to it but not without my kitty Pic. :(

Wed 9th June. Pix has still not returned... Written my Mummy- Steph

So here I am 1 week and a day since I last saw my baby girl Pix. Just to be clear she is not a child substitute. I'm not even sure if I want kid's yet at 29yrs old. It's just with having Pix since 7 weeks old and first seeing her at 5 weeks I feel like she felt I was her adopted mummy. She licked me all the time, that was her thing; with her sister Firefly it is kneading but Pix liked the salty taste of my skin maybe? I miss her rough tongue obsessively on my arm that even annoyed me sometimes with the roughness of it. I knew she was loving me up though. I miss her twinkling eyes of yellow squinting at me in a awe like, loving way, like I was her world at that exact moment and of course she was also mine. I miss her little chirps at me and how if I chirped to her she'd chirp back and we'd talk to one another like that. How I'd look out into the back yard from upstairs and she'd see me and start chirping and moving closer before jumping on the fence to try and get as near to the window as she could but she couldn't quite get there so she jump down and run so very fast through the cat flap and upstairs to greet me and I'd scoop her up and she'd give me a nose kiss and a cuddle. I miss her lounging lazily with me on my sofa watching the big light box. {Firefly must sense I'm thinking of PIx as she's just jumped in front of the laptop screen and is kneading the blanket stopping me from writing, bless] ... I miss Pix's soft tortie brown and cappuccino stomach with flashes of auburn and rubbing her up and down while she just lay there with her legs flopped haphazardly apart in the most trusting way, completely unguarded. I miss how she loved it when I throw part of a blanket over her and she'd tunnel inside to hide, she love to hide in covers. Sometimes if the blanket fell onto the floor and I was on my laptop, she'd crawl inside on the floor and lay in there. I miss when she'd sneak in our bedroom last thing and she'd hide seemingly innocent under a desk until i'd got in bed and then jump in the middle of us and lay out like a long sausage dog before turning on her back and laying like a human. It would annoy me after a while as I need my space and i'd inevitably scoop her up and take her to her cat bed. She then wake me up at 4-5 in the morning with a pawing un clawed at the pine door to my room, shuffle shuffle shuffle it went and repeated like that with a mewing until I gave in and got up to let her outside and fill her bowl with bic's (she would only eat bic's). I miss how she decided the cola cola glass on my boyf's bedside table was her glass and she'd every so often go and lap at the water for ages! She loved drinking her water. I miss her following me around the house and watching me doing the housework like I was teaching her how to do it. I miss getting out our car after work and her running up to us out of the bushes chirping with her tail in the air mewing, so glad to see us and hungry for tea. I miss just scooping her up and most recently, her making a shelf on my arms and curling up and licking my forearm as I walked around the house with her. I miss her in the car travelling to the vets or to stay with her grandma when we needed to go on holiday and her mews of worry and how I would calm her and say " nearly there Pic, nearly there baby girl, and give her a mew every now and again in reply to her mews. I miss seeing her in the window as I came home laying in her cat bed which is now empty. I miss her purr and her twitching while she had her kitty dreams. She made me feel so much love when I was with her and I felt like she was there for me when I was down, which recently has been a lot. She was possessive though and would give Pie (Firefly) the evil eye if she came in the living room when she was in her domain on the sofa. Pie would often retreat and go off upstairs. Now Pie is here with me on the sofa and doesn't seem to be too traumatised by Pix not being here. She has taken on many of her roles and comes to me when I call. Now I've out a bell and collar on, which she lets me put on and take off quite willingly, I hear her jingle when I call and I know she's safe and coming home. Pie loves to play and has so much energy to get rid of. She's lost her tag team partner though against the Tom cats in the neighbourhood now. I feel for her strongly in that way. I miss them being a tag team and seeing them in rare moments playing with their toys and almost getting on. I think i'm done with the 'missings' just for now but what with going round to my next door neighbour who is a young 20yr old and her being completely unfriendly and lacking in humour and also when I asked 'did she not like cats?' she said abruptly 'no... I like birds' I now have it in my stupid head that Pix has been poisoned or 'taken care of in some way' The bin men came the day after Pix disappeared, she could have been put in a bag and got rid of inconspicuously and all our campaigning could have been in vain. This is the worst sort of pain. It is a kick in the stomach an a lurch too, a feeling of absence that you can't fill up. A longing for my missing Pix, not knowing if she's still alive or if she dies painfully, or if she's scared somewhere surviving god knows how, or if in the best way, she has been taken in my someone nice who just doesn't realise for some reason that she has a loving home. She had a little belly on her and a gloriously healthy coat. She is microchipped and spayed. At 9 days, I'm starting to feel like hope is fading. I read hopeful stories every day online at work to get me through. Nothing holds any weight for me now. I just feel empty and so down. Thank god for Pie trying her best to comfort me. Bless her little white socks! :( x

Missing Pixie! Heartbroken! Lost June 1st 2010! :(

Lost Dark Tortie Female 2yr old in Hull HU6, 1st June 2010

Lost 1st June 2010, she is very beautiful. She is a small, spayed, brown and black female with patches of cream and ginger and a striking flame across her face and chest. She is microchipped but has no collar, due to nearly dying as a kitten from a safety collar injury that didn't release. I now wish I'd tried again as everyone is asking if she has a collar! Have fitted one on her sister now (a tortie and white, who is very aware of our distress and is being extra affectionate and loving, bless her little white paws!)

Pixie was last seen playing with her sister on the landing of our home at 3am being a nuisance, so I left the cat flap open so they could get rid of their energy as it was a warm night. They are outdoor cats and know the area well front and back living down a quiet cul de sac street. My partner didn't see her at 6.30am when he got up and we thought it strange when she still hadn't been seen at 8.30pm. Started house calling at that point and have now 3 days on, still not found her and have fully postered our neighbourhood today and done house to house enquiries and have neighbours on the look out.

We have checked local outbuildings, shed’s where she may be trapped and yards of the commercial buildings at the back of our house, (thanks to helpful staff) to the best of our ability but there are a lot of derelict buildings and students near by, coming and going.

Pixie is friendly, vocal and popular with my friends. She is very loving and I have a very special bond with her. She comes to sleep with us on our bed and talks to me in cat chat and is deeply missed. She is very well looked after and I'm worried for her health and safety. She loves drinking water out a human glass and only eats cat biscuits.

If you see her, or know someone who has taken her in, thinking she is a stray, please let us know? Even if you know she has come to harm, let us know, as just not knowing is leaving us distraught and restless. We can't get on with our lives for wondering if she's hurt somewhere! We miss her as we've brought her up from 7 weeks old! :(

Call Hull Animal Welfare on 01430423986 if you have information please! She lives on Blaydes Street, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RE

Pixie is back home with us and has made a miraculas- recovery!

So happy to tell everyone who's been following this tale that Pixie was released back to us yesterday at 4pm at a grand total cost of £268. She's sat with me as I write tucked up under my arm purring away and is more of a love bug than ever! We are keeping her in the cosy front room with everything she needs and she's very comfortable getting lots of rest and eating bic's like there's no tomorrow! Seriously if anything i'm a little worried she's lost her ability to know when to stop! But I think the pet hospital staff have been trying to offer her wet cat food when she will only eat bic's! (She's now rolling over my laptop trying to be centre of attention with her belly exposed!) She's drinking tons of water too which is good, is her old self grooming, licking me all over the place much to my dismay at that rough tongue!

Her sister Firefly is non to happy that she's returned actually! I think it may be the smell of the hospital on her but Fire just hisses when she attempts to say hello with a nose touch and then grumbles away with big black pupils. She's getting a bit better though this evening and then both sat and ate some bics together tonight. Still keeping them in seperate rooms when we're not around as don't want any fights to upset Pic.

Thinking about sectioning off our yard with anti climb fencing at some point before we let them back out. Definitely no collars from now on and need to write a letter to the guy with the barbed wore in his garden that caused this distress. Went into his shop yesterday to give a peace of my mind but he had customers coming in and just ignored me so I had to leave. Its winter now anyway and don't see myself wanting to let them out in this horrible weather we've been having anyway. Maybe they are too young as well to be dealing with inner city walls, crevices and such hazards.

Will continue thinking what to do but must go now as I have an upside down kitt on my knee making it difficult to type!

Horray for Pixie, our little surviver! 7 lives left!

Update 11.12pm Pixie is doing ok! in hospital!

Was allowed to visit my Piccy today at 4.30pm in pet hospital. She was being well looked after in a kennel with a towel over the window as she was scared by a yapping dog, poor thing! Signs of progress include: She's been grooming herself, she's been drinking water and eating a bit of chicken, she miaowed when she saw me and it sounded normal not raspy, she sniffed me and recognised me, she came up to me in the cage and tried batting her water bowl out of the way! Typical Pixie behaviour! I was soooooo relieved after having an awful day of not knowing! Its now costing £40 a day to keep her in and the bill is currently £206 so I'm relieved its not £176 a day, which it was for yesterday as was Sunday rates! I think she's a fighting! Her sister Firefly isn't that bothered she's gone and is enjoying the extra fuss! Get another call from vets in morning. Think she'll be in for another couple of days though but just want her to get better. Thinking of you Piccy as always! Mum x

Update to Pixie's condition

Got a call from vets this morning saying Pixie needs to be kept in for at least another day. Cost already £170 and now another amount similar a day! I have some savings for a kitchen but i'm going to have to use them on her but theres no way of knowing if after it all she'll fully recover. She was dead after all before my Iain brought her back to life. It's not sinking in and I feel sick with worry. I love this kitty so much! I could just kick myself for not getting pet insurance!

Her condition is her breathing, which is varying between 45 and 75 breaths a minute. They are giving her diuretics and antibiotics and she will need another xray later and then there's care. They won't let me see her as they say the surgery is busy but I need to see how she is.

Don't know whether to write to manufacturer about her break away collar not working or ask the animal welfare place I got her from for help with payment of vets bills. Her collar was by ANCOL and was their kitten elasticated collar in purple. Please if anyone has an advice for me. let me know? Thanks

News flash! Pixie down to 7 lives - Current status: In 'Vet Hospetal' after strangulation collar- injury.

Having a horrible day off work. Pixie is pet hospital, fighting for her life after a near death accident today on her 4th trip out of the garden, now she's spayed and fully vaccinated against all the major ill's.

My boyfriend (the hero) heard a whimpering sound coming from a nearby garden (of the inner city terraced, high wall kind) when he went out to check they were alright after being out 15mins, while we had lunch. He peered through the fence to see Pixie on the floor in obvious distress. He shouted for me and I came running! "Quick get a knife, Quickly!" he said. I started panicking and grabbed scissors and knifes and ran out into the back yard. I handed them over this solid 6ft high fence that BF had scaled over (unbelievably) I kept asking what was wrong as I knew nothing. He didn't say anything. I ran back in and dragged out the futon of which behind was a step ladder and dragged it downstairs into the garden and to the fence. I climbed up and looked into the garden. It was horrible! Barbed wire with razorblades all over strewn across the ground and my baby Pix laying there caught up with her collar (elasticated with safety clapse, which hadn't worked!) Her collar had got twisted round the wire and had basically strangled her! Iain started resuscitating her limb body and gradually she came round, breathing fast and raspy. I was beside myself and so was Iain. He handed her little wet body to me as I stood on the ladder and I rushed her inside to a warm chair.

We laid her on her side and made sure her tongue didn't obstruct her airway and she looked so scared but trusting in us as if she was saying "help me, help me!". I found my mobile and rang our vets. We got through to the emergency help line and I cried down the phone for help. They said to bring her in and we rushed to the car. She was so in shock she just lay in my arms wheezing and rasping (it was obvious she had fluid on her lungs or something) We brought the carrier too and drove through crazy traffic and in panic, just stroking her and saying her name. She kept going from laying with her head on my hand to her eyes open and looking around and at me, which was a good sign I hoped. When we got to the vets, the vet tested her breathing and said she couldn't tell what was wrong without an xray and she'd need to be kept in over night and treated. This is costing £170 and we stupidly haven't gotten around to getting pet insurance! Not that it even bared thinking about. We had to pay whatever it took to save our baby girl!

When we got home it really hit me and I had a crying spell and rang my mother. Iain was really upset as well and I haven't seen him so upset in years!
An hour later we got a call from the vet.

She said that Pixie was doing ok, was not in respiratory distress and they'd drained the fluid off her lungs and given her antibiotics. She was still breathing too fast but they would keep an eye on her over night. She also didn't have internal bleeding or any other issues.

So taking us to now as I write. I'm much calmer and I'm gonna still go out for my friends birthday meal tonight as there is no point worrying at home. I can ring the vets later and see how she is and hopefully she will be getting better by morning?

Firefly has been a good girl and isn't seeming to miss her sister yet but I gave her some treat chicken cat food to cheer her and me up anyway.

I'll keep you all posted on Pixies progress!

Bye for now!

Pixie's adoptive mum

We are still here after our op's!

So I'm still here after my op to spay me! Mummy's so glad I'm doing ok. Was such a good girl when I got home and just sat quietly with happy eyes and a dignified misdemeanour... unlike poor Firefly my sis! She didn't have such a great after experience of her op and was very grumpy and agitated when she got home. So much so that mummy rang the vets really freaked out cos she didn't know what to do! Firefly was running everywhere growling in this really low pitched way and kept trying to touch her wound but every time she did it hurt so much that she'd growl and skit out all over the place with big black pupils and a look of sheer horror, as if someone else had hurt her (well they had kinda). She wouldn't settle for an hour or so and jumped high up on cupboards even though she wasn't supposed to, in her efforts to escape the pain. Eventually though after running away from mummy at every opportunity, she jumped on the kitchen work-top and settled nearby mummy, who was engorging herself with creamy brie on fresh bread with Lurpack butter to make herself feel a bit better from the guilt! Mummy got a stroke in here and there and realise Firefly didn't hate her after all.

Eventually we both just settled down for a catnap, me on my Ikea Poang chair with soft brown blanket and Fire on the window sill upstairs. When Fire woke up later, mummy had a real treat for her in the form of some tender chicken flakes for spoilt cats, which Fire just guzzled up in a starved frenzy! (well we hadn't eaten since 8pm the night before!) Personally I don't like wet food and just like my bic's but I always feel a bit envious that she gets more variety than me. We both got our appetites back pretty quick really though and had a little treat kitten milk too.

Next morning...

Mummy was greeted by two happy kitts! We are both feeling much better this morning and Firefly's side doesn't seem to smart as much and she can even lay on it. We hung out with mum on her bed and then Firefly snuck into the drawer under the bed for a lie in. We are desperate to get outside and as we sat in the kitchen while mum made breakfast, Firefly cried to go out and looked at mum with her big mournful eyes (Pleeeeaaassseeee). But apparently mum has to keep us in a while so we don't hurt our sides. Mum said we need just one more horrid injection to fend of the Feline Leukaemia, and then we're good to go in the big outdoors (which ain't so big being in a city but there is grassy bits here and there and big jungles to hide in as students live next door and their garden never gets chopped!) Mummy is looking forward to us having our freedom too and dad is installing a cat-flap for us so we can freely go in and out without them having to watch us every time! Anyway, that is my update. Miaow at ya later! Purrrrrrr x

I'm getting spayed tommorow!

So the time has finally come for me to be spayed now i'm 6 months old! My how time has flown! I'm so big now! I weight 2.6kg ish and mum's dropping me off at the vets before she goes to work in the morning with my sister. I have no real idea about whats going to happen but I've heard mum and dad talking about it and am not really bothered. I must say though I am hoping Firefly doesn't have an accident in the carrier again this time like she did on the weekend when mum and dad took us to the animal shelter to be microchipped! Mum said it was the most disgusting thing she's ever had to deal with! ha ha! I was good though as always ;) Mum is very nervous about the op and really is quite upset i'm losing my ability to have kittens of my own, (not that she would want me too particularly, its just she remembers her old tortie kit called Trixie who got spayed when she was 7 and when she got old, mum wished she could have some kittens so she could have a part of her when she passed on. Don't know if this feeling is normal? She fully understands why kitties like us have to be spayed but she wishes there was a kitty pill instead of it being so permanent that's all. Anyway wish me luck and a speedy recovery, cos I'm a very pretty kitt and my mummy loves me and my sis very much! x Miaow! Purr!