I'm convinced that the Universe sends me special-needs kitties because the Greater Power knows I will take care of them. I've had cats with kidney failure, cats with thyroid issues, one blind kitty... Sammie had cancer. Skye had Bartonella's disease. Kensi? Well, up until now I thought Kensi was my gift for having cared for the others. Finally, a healthy, low-maintenance feline. This winter has been a rough one for everyone in my family. First Mom's failing health and her death in early January. Since then, I've been sick with one thing or another. Stress related. Diminished immune system stuff. If' I've not been ill, Hubby's had this bug or that. And Kensi has been sneezing and wheezing through it all. I wasn't panicked because she hasn't acted sick otherwise. She's eating. She's ripping and racing through the house. But she's had this upper respiratory thing that just would not clear up. Monday, I took her to the vet. Dia...

The good news is I thought this post was going to be a memorial to my Skye kitty. Instead, it’s a tale of one tough little furbaby. Skye has been a Bartonella cat for as long as I’ve had her. For those who know nothing about this wicked disease, let me give a little background. Bartonella is a bacterial infection spread by fleas. It has no cure and, in Skye’s case, manifests itself as severe periodontal disease and gingivitis. Over the years, Skye has dealt with sore, red, often bloody gums. I’ve treated her with round after round of antibiotics and too-frequent steroid shots. But lately nothing has been giving her more than a week or two of relief. For the last year, I’ve had a sense that we were on borrowed time. This last month has been the worst. Yet through it all, she continued to eat and to snuggle with me. I wasn’t ready to let go when she still had so much fight left in her. Last Sunday morning I awoke to find her right upper lip/cheek swollen. Of course,...

Some Higher Power seems to think I'm a good kitty mom because He keeps sending me cats with health problems. I've dealt with thyroid issues, kidney failure, blindness, deafness, and cancer in my cats over the years. After my sweet Sammie lost her battle to squamous cell carcinoma, I thought my next rescue kitty, Skye, would be low maintenance with her measly allergies. That fantasy lasted all of a week when my vet diagnosed her with Bartonella. You might have heard of it called Cat Scratch Fever. There's a lot of conflicting information out there about the illness. Basically, it's spread by fleas. Skye had been infested with them when she was dumped at the shelter. In her case, the infection manifests itself in severely inflamed gums. But after a couple of rounds of azithromycin, Skye's oral problems were under control. That lasted for about five years. Now, it's back. I did three rounds of the antibiotic this time with only temporary results. Last...