Sputnik

And so it continues! Thankfully, this story has a much happier outcome. Our youngest animal is a cat, aged 9 years ... and here he is. My DH is totally in love with this cat and when Sputnik got very sick 2 weeks ago, we feared the worst.
Sputnik is a Scottish Longhair and he is a very big cat. His coat went off first. It became lank, thin and 'stary'. He started to lose weight, couldn't miaow and one morning he was drooling with obvious breathing difficulty. Straight to the vet! Within two minutes she told us he had some obstruction in his throat and she would operate immediately. Of course, we were terrified about leaving him there and of what the outcome might be. By mid-afternoon we had a call to say that Sputnik had some sort of cyst in his throat which was filling with fluid and it was pressing on his windpipe, hence the breathing prob. The vet said she had only just been able to pop it with the tip of a scalpel. The area was close to the main arteries and facial nerves, so she'd been loathe to 'dig around too much'. She had no idea of what had caused it and she wasn't sure what his prognosis was. We went to pick him up and paid just over $500 for the treatment ... I think DH might have paid $5000 by this time ... he was overwrought. For the first 36 hours, Sputnik was very sore and quiet, but he was happy to sleep on his Daddy's bed and just be left alone. Then his miaow came back, followed by a voracious appetite! How he managed to scoff down the beef mince we were feeding him, with such a huge wound and painful neck/throat amazed me. He is now recovering very well. His coat is silky, thick & lustrous. Looks like he might have used up all his 9 cat lives on this one! We are delighted he is well again; and getting better every day.