Sammie the Kitten

We are very late with this posting! But, the good news is is that Sammie's surgery was a great success! The vet watched her walk and did some tests and determined that x-rays weren't even warranted; her leg has healed just fine. She got all her necessary shots and vaccinations, as well as a microchip and a spay. No more sleepless nights - for us or for her!! We will take some pictures and upload them soon. I am very eager for you all to see exactly what your generousity has done for this amazing kitty!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to post some new pictures of Sammie. She has come such a long way! And just to update on our last post saying she seemed withdrawn, that has completely changed! What a happy, friendly, outgoing, purr-monster she is :)

We tried to get a shot of her walking, so you all could see what your generosity has done for this little girl. As you can see, Sammie is now very comfortable with her surroundings. She loves to go "outside" on the screened-in patio and is now getting along very well with our cats (some of whom can be seen in the pictures!). They all lounge around together during the day and play at night. If we could only figure out a way to get the other cats away from Sammie's special food, things would be perfect ;)

Health-wise, so far so good. Sammie is doing very well with walking. She is still "gimpy" in her right leg and looks funny when she walks, but she can get around just as well as the other cats, so who cares what she looks like! She's not limping and does not appear to be in any pain. It's been weeks since she has needed painkillers. We really won't know until Wednesday how the bones have healed. Wednesday is a very big day for Sammie - she gets her post-op xrays (which will show, objectively, how well the surgery worked), gets all her vaccinations and other shots, gets her heartworm, flea, tick, and mite preventative, gets microchipped, and gets SPAYED!! This kitty is going to be the healthiest on the block by the time Dr. Bogan's done with her :)

Her earmites appear to be completely gone, but that will also be rechecked on Wednesday. The only other odd thing that we have seen in her is that she goes from room to room in the middle of the night howling. Not a "I'm in pain" howl, but either a "this is my territory" howl or a "I'm in heat and need to be spayed" howl. We have no experience with unaltered cats (cats who are not spayed or neutered) and therefore don't know much about what it means to be in heat, or if this howling is consistent with being in heat. Our Maine Coon, Teddy Bear, will sometimes howl loudly in the middle of the night, but this is what we call "howling at the moon," meaning just asserting his presence in his terrain. Whatever it is, we hope it can get addressed on Wednesday so that Aaron and I can start to sleep through the night again (this kitty has a set of LUNGS!!).

We will let everyone know on Wednesday night the results of her visit! We're a little nervous that such a teeny tiny thing is going under general anesthesia for the third time within a month, but I know she's in very able hands. Thanks for all the support and thoughts, and we'll be back with what is sure to be good news soon :)

Hello everyone! We wanted to update you all on Sammie's post-operative evaluation. It's been two weeks since she had her surgery. Since the surgery she had been doing remarkably well until Sunday. While her leg and lacerations were (and still are) healing fine, we noticed a marked change in Sammie's temperament. She had become withdrawn and no longer liked to be pat or scratched. Additionally, she was throwing up all her food and eventually stopped eating. So the post-op appointment was good timing, as we needed to bring her in to discuss these new symptoms.

The good news is, her leg is doing wonderfully. We won't be able to tell for sure until she gets her xrays in another two weeks, but based on her walking skills, balance, and gait, the doctor said he was very happy with her progress. We no longer have to keep her crated if someone is home to provide supervision. If we are not home, then it's best to crate her to ensure she doesn't hurt herself.

The bad news is she has an ear mite infection. Dr. Bogan told us that ear mites can cause an animal to be dizzy and nauseous (because it affects the equilibrium). We're not sure why the mites weren't detected before (probably because there were more pressing issues at hand) but this type of infection apparently worsens over time, which might account for her new symptoms of being isolative and not eating. Another idea Dr. Bogan had is that Sammie might be in a certain part of her "heat" cycle where female cats become irritable and lose interest in eating. Either way, we treated her for the ear mites today and she is scheduled to get spayed in two weeks when she goes in for her xrays. The doctor also prescribed her anti-nausea pills, in case the nausea is what is making her throw up.

So, in two weeks, Sammie gets xrays and a spay. During this visit she will also receive a comprehensive examination, which includes all necessary vaccines and tests. She's going to be one healthy little kitty here shortly! Thanks for reading, and we look forward to updating soon to report that Sammie's back to her old self and mite-free :)

Sammie's been keeping a secret from everyone! :) Now that her belly is no longer black and blue, it is very clear that she has recently had a litter of kittens. She is not as young as we first thought, rather she just appeared that way because she was so malnourished. She is approximately 1 to 2 years old, and we're guessing that she had her litter maybe three or four weeks before we found her. I like to think that someone found her kittens and took them to the rescue.

Which brings me to an important point. When we found Sammie, we could tell she had once had an owner because she had a very old and faded tick collar on her. This indicates that she was an "outdoor" cat, because indoor cats do not require tick collars (some indoor cats might take preventitive pills - ours do - but it would be very odd to put a tick collar on an indoor cat). So, her owners permitted her to be an outdoor cat without spaying her. Absolutely not okay, and Sammie is a perfect example of what can happen - the cat becomes pregnant, has kittens, and ultimately contributes to the pet-overpopulation problem. I hope people really learn to spay or neuter their pets, *especially* if they let them go outside.

Sammie is doing great! We thought she may have had an ear infection a couple of days ago, but we applied some left over medication from the last time one of our cats had an ear infection and it cleared right up. Sammie was not happy about us sticking q-tips in her ears :)

I think we're going to begin weaning her off her painkillers and antibiotics. Her post-op evaluation is next Wednesday, when the surgeon will determine how successful the surgery actually was. But if her demenor and behavior are any indication, it went very well! She is such a happy, purring little ball of fur, and Aaron and I feel very lucky to have found her :)

Thanks for reading and checking up on her! We'll be sure to update again soon!

Hello all,

Just wanted to give a quick update on Sammie. She continues to do well and is quite the social butterfly. She is very wobbly, but is walking quite a bit now. We have not seen her drag herself around with her front paws in a long time.

Sammie does not like to be confined in her crate, and we've been letting her roam around the house and sniff around a bit. As long as she doesn't run or jump on things while she's exploring she should be fine.

She is still sleeping a lot, even for a cat, which is a good thing. The more she sleeps the more her body will heal. Some of the gashes on her left leg where she was chewed on by an animal keep re-opening now that she's walking, because they're all near a joint. We've decided to give it a couple days before we contact the vet to see if she needs stitches. In the meantime, she's still taking her antibiotics regularly to prevent any of her wounds from becoming infected.

That's about it for now. Slowly but surely she's getting better. It's obviously going to take a while, but every day brings a new improvement. Thanks for reading, everyone! :)

Hi all,

We're happy to report little Sammie is doing great! She is happy again and although she shows signs of discomfort if she sits the wrong way, has not exhibited any more signs of extreme pain.

We saw her do something today that we haven't seen her do before - play! She was all about batting her toys around, swatting pieces of string, and attempting to attack my flip-flops. I was concerned that all the roughhousing wasn't good for her, so I put her back in her dog crate for a while. She apparently wasn't a fan of that - when I went back to check on her, I discovered she'd stuck her paws between the crate bars to grab a nearby roll of paper towels, pulled the end of the towels through the crate, and had a grand old time unravelling and shredding them everywhere. I guess she was trying to say "Don't keep me in here! I want to play!"

Also, the fur on her belly (which had been missing since we'd found her) is starting to grow back in. She's purring like a champ, and has even starting to make friends with Teddy Bear, our 5 year old 17-pound Maine Coon cat. They touched noses today and sniffed each other, and napped a short distance away. Overall, today was her best day yet.

Sammie also discovered her own little hiding spot, up underneath the boxspring in the guest bedroom where she's staying. The fabric that is supposed to cover the underneath the boxspring is ripped off (thanks to another cat of ours, Oreo!) so she likes to crawl up onto the wood that is below the springs. I think it's her new favorite spot, and I also think it's really good for her. Cats are notoriously independent creatures who like small hidden places, and I'm sure it feels unusual for her to be out in the open and dependent on us at all times. So up in the boxspring is her own private little place where we can't see her, and I think she likes that :)

Thanks for checking in on her! We'll update again soon. We can't wait until she's fully healed and we can take pictures so you all can see how your selfless contributions truly made a difference in the life of this precious animal :)

Well, today was the big day! Sammie was in surgery for several hours this afternoon, and the vet said it was a complete success :) She underwent what is called a Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO). This is a procedure where the head of the femur (the "ball" part of the ball and joint socket that holds the leg into the pelvis) is removed using a small saw. The healing process and resulting scar tissue create what is referred to as a "false joint," where a make-shift joint is made that is no longer bone-to-bone.

In addition to this, two of Sammies three fractures were repaired. The vet decided to not repair the third fracture because 1) it was in a place where he'd of had to do a lot of digging and aggravate the surrounding bone and tendon, and 2) with the other two repaired, this fracture is pretty much lined up anyway, enabling it to heal on its own over time.

It's been pretty hard on Sammie tonight. Up until about an hour ago, she was in sort of a "panic" mode ever since we picked her up from the vet. She wasn't at all drowsy from the anesthesia, and was really high-strung and anxious for the next couple of hours. Ideally we'd be keeping her in her travelling crate so that she wouldn't be able to stand, but she was rattling around inside of it, pushing her head against in, tipping it, and really trying to get out. She looked absolutely petrified. It was heartbreaking - and probably worse for her leg than walking - so we let her out. She immediately began vigorously chomping at her incision and stitches and growling. We put a cone on her neck to prevent her from re-opening the would, but the loss of her peripheral vision seemed to scare her even more. Granted, no animal likes those things, but she was rolling around on the ground, whimpering and really trying to get it off. So, we took the cone off of her and gave her some more kitty codiene, because she was obviously suffering. She finally fell asleep (completely passed out!) and actually looks very peaceful now.

We think she's just really scared and confused, and not sure why she woke up to what must be severe pain and a bunch of her fur missing. We're actually wondering if she's thinking she got into another accident. Aaron is taking off work tomorrow to be with her and I'm taking off Friday. The plan is to call the vet first thing tomorrow morning to see what else can be done for her pain and distress - I'm sure I'd be feeling the same way if I just had part of my femur sawed off!

Even though it's tough for her right now, the important thing is that the surgery was a success and all we need to do now is make sure she gets enough rest. We've posted a picture of her below -she might look a little funny and swollen, but she's still adorable :)

Thank you all for making her surgery possible, and for reading her updates. We continue to tell her she's the most popular kitty cat we know :) Looking forward to posting again soon with good news about her progress!

We did it! We raised all the money needed for Sammie's surgery!! We got her scheduled for tomorrow...what great timing :) We are dropping her off at the vet at 7am and picking her up at 6pm. Please keep your fingers crossed!

She's laying next to me right now as I type this. I can't wait to see her walk!! We keep telling her she has a big day tomorrow :)

I really hope everyone who donated realizes what a selfless, amazing thing they did. I'm not sure what we would have done without all your support. Last Thursday, things seemed finanically overwhelming and we weren't sure what we were going to do about this poor helpless kitten we found. Thanks to the overwhelming support Sammie got, things are looking very, very bright for her. Your generous donations have covered the cost of her surgery, and our parents are helping us out with her other expenses. And several people have expressed an interest in giving Sammie a loving home - although at this point it is very difficult to picture our household without her! :)

It is actually pretty inspiring how many people helped out, both friends of ours and perfect strangers. We look forward to "paying it forward" by donating the dog crate we got for her to the local animal rescue group after she heals. We will continue to update this site with news on her post-op recovery, which she will achieve thanks to your generousity :) Thanks again to all!

I again have to start out this blog with a huge "Thank You" to everyone who is contributing to Sammie's surgery. We've raised almost 1100 in a little over three days and we are almost there!! We are so confident that she will get enough that we already went ahead and put the surgery deposit down and just trying to keep her as comfortable as possible until we can get her in. The good thing about waiting for the surgery is that it gives her body the chance to recover a bit from the trauma of the accident, so that her body's a little stronger for the surgery.

Sammie continues to do well. It breaks our heart that she just has to lie there while she can see that our four cats can run around and play and be independent, but we know that she'll be that way again soon! She is very frightened of our cats, which makes sense given that she was out on the street for so long (where, according to the vet, every other animal becomes your enemy and your competition) and that she was attacked by animal after her accident. It might be the case that Sammie's forever home will have to be one where she's the only animal, since she gets so nervous. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

One thing's for sure, and that's that she has an amazing love and trust for humans. Whether its with us or anyone that comes to visit her, her little ears perk right up and her purr-motor starts immediately :) It's still a little bit of a Catch-22 with her pain managment - it's painful for her to be without her meds, but when she's on them and feeling really good she tries to stand and walk. The danger in that is that one of the breaks in her bone is adjacent to her ciadic nerve, and if the bone fragment were to sever that nerve she would be paralyzed for life. Therefore, we watch her like a hawk to make sure her keeps her furry lil' self lying down!

I'm hoping the next time I update this it will be to say Mission Accomplished, as we only have a little over $100 to raise! So please, if you haven't yet donated, please consider doing so. No amount is too little, every bit helps! Thank you for reading and taking time to care about this sweet little kitty :)