Mogquai

After we got Inu (the infamous satan kitty that so many of my friends have heard about), Amanda and I noticed that we had a black and white theme emerging in our pet collection. So when we decided to get another cat (don't ask me why that seemed like a good idea), we scoured the Eugene-Springfield area for a black and white kitten. We called several ads in the paper offering free kittens until we found one that said there was a black and white up for grabs. We trekked over to the Springfield ghetto to pick up our furry little bundle of joy from some meth house.

She was so tiny, much smaller than her orange tabby siblings; she fit in the palm of my hand. (Yes, for those of you who know Mogz today, that fat kitteh was tiny at first) We played with strings; we stalked Buddy's fluffy tail; she rode around in the hood of my hoodie. Then, her hair started to fall out, and it fell out and fell out, leaving scabby skin beneath it. We didn't know what was wrong. We took her to the vet. Ringworm. They gave us a shampoo, and we dutifully washed her twice a day. She lost weight, and more hair. She looked like a gremlin, so we named her Mogquai because naming her after a gremlin seemed too mean. She got sicker. Finally, Amanda said that we were going to take her to the vet that had treated all of her family's animals forever and ever. So, we drove 45 minutes out of Eugene to take our tiny kitten to Brian Reister in Leeburg, Oregon. He took one look at that sickly creature and told us that we had to be prepared for this kitten to die. He gave us a kitty vitamin and told us to get athlete's foot cream and slather it all over her. We did. She hated it, but she got better - first furry, then fluffy, then fat. <3

8 years (or 7? I'm not sure) later, she's been fat and fluffy and sweet and wonderful this whole time.

Now she's sick again. She has Feline Hepatic Lipidosis (Fatty Liver Syndrome). From my internet research... FLS occurs when a cat goes through a period of anorexia for whatever various reasons (unrelated to the syndrome). The body starts using up fat stores, which the liver must then process. Cat's livers are not great at processing fat - they eat a pretty lean diet in the wild - so the accumulation of fat exceeds the processing of fat, and the liver begins to sustain damage. The good news is that we caught it pretty early. She isn't vomiting, she is still drinking water, and she's not jaundiced. She's just lethargic, skinny and not eating. (that's all?!??!) We have to force-feed her to keep her body from processing her fat stores until the liver can catch up and she starts eating again. The vet insists that I need to bring her in to be put on a glucose IV, but she's keeping down all the food I squirt down her throat, and is noticeably improved already... so are they trying to scam me out of dollars I don't have? Internet sources claim (and if it's on the internet, it MUST be true!) that, as long as she's keeping down the food I'm giving her, she will recover with time.

Here's to hope, my little love. I pulled you from death's door once through constant home care, and I feel confident that Philip and I can beat this too.