She’s still kickin’. I wish I could report that she’s showing great improvement, but she’s pretty much as she was a few days ago… except for not looking close to immanent death (which, admittedly, is an important improvement). She is still skinny, which should come as no surprise. But she acts perpetually *exhausted.* Some is surely due to being malnourished. But some… I dunno. If she’s standing up, she’s leaning against a vertical surface. When she walks, she walks kinda… drunk. A perfect day is one spent laying down *all* day (when for a normal cat, there’d be at least ten minutes of activity in the day). And she seems to have very little sense of smell; doesn’t notice catnip, barely notices canned cat food. I’m wondering if there’s neurological damage. Given the rather dismal photo below showing what remains of her teeth (not shown: she’s missing a bunch of the little tiny teeth up front, incisors and such), I’m wondering if in addition to getting shot with a BB gun, maybe she caught a boot to the face, breaking teeth and damaging her noggin. Dunno. She acts old.
Most disturbing is that the lump the vet found and declared a tumor seems to be bigger than it was just a few days ago. Part of it is hard, but most is squishy. My hope – based on years of absolutely no veterinary experience – is that maybe that’s where she got shot… the hard stuff is scar tissue, the squishy is just milk glands going goofy due to her changing status. But a tumor is of course entirely likely.
She doesn’t like the other cats, and they don’t like her, so she’s still segregated. Her space is slowly growing… she now has part of a hallway along with a bathroom. But she still spends her time on the cat bed. Except when I go and pet her… the photos don’t show the half of the desperate desire she has for human contact. Given what happened to her… I can’t explain that.
If the “tumor” doesn’t go away, she will require additional vet visits sometime in the near-ish future. I have no idea what procedures would be needed, and how expensive they’d be. So the offer remains open, if’n you want to donate… help a cat, help bribe your way to better karma, help buy your way out of time in Purgatory, however you want to look at it. I’ve uploaded about 190 megabytes of photos of Marvin for those who’ve donated, so it you want the very best in indifferent-quality photos of a miserable kitty, I’ve got you covered.
