My Madaline

Madaline, my cat, is a tortoise. She's over 12 years old, sometimes ornery, but she's all mine. She recently went through, and put us through, some significant trauma. While we were on vacation she suffered what the vets believe is a stroke to her spine. We came home and she was completely paralyzed on her right side. Poor thing. This cat is all about independence. So for about two weeks, we excercised her, took her to the litter box, etc. We also engaged a vet to give her accupuncture treatments. She was doing some movement on her own, perhaps by dragging. Then, one saturday afternoon, she just stood up and started walking. She looked like she was drunk, but she was doing it. And everyday since then, she has gotten a little bit better. She's not afraid to try anything, even if it doesn't fare well for her. She's learned that her front leg isn't going to respond every time like she wants it to, so she's compensating for that in how she moves off of furniture and down our stairs. I really admire her fortitude and compuncture. I saw this post this morning about the sacredness of animals and was inspired to write a little about my Madaline.

Through all of this, we learned about not only the steadfastness of our love for our animals but their trust and love for us. Madaline knew that not all was well for her, but she trusted me to keep taking care of her. In additiona, we engaged a vet that does accupunture and a friend that does chiropracty to help Madaline along. While Mad wasn't excited about the treatments, she looked to me in trust while they were occuring to keep her safe. And as an aside we know that these alternative treatments really made a difference in her recovery. Mad showed significant progress following both types of treatments, and both provided immediate pain relief for her of one type or another at one time or another. We're both excited to be back in the sunshine!