When Cara (my daughter) moved over here she had a couple of semi feral cats that we took on. Martha and Rufus. The idea was they'd live in the cow shed 'and be no bother'
Sadly Martha vanished but Rufus got on well with our house cats and after a few months I woke up to find him asleep at the foot of the bed. Gradually we went from him running away and hiding when he realised we'd seen him to sleeping on the sofa by me and even allowing me to stroke him when he was eating.
Yesterday he was not too well, took up residence in the veg rack and hardly came out all day. Decided to take him to the vets today but catching him is no easy task and son-in-law Gary offered to help. Anyway, Rufus was up and about this morning looking fine so I thought I'd phone Gary and say not to bother. Just as I picked up the phone Rufus had a fit.
Over on his back, paws going as if he was fighting and spraying wee. It was over in 10 seconds but scary. Realised from a couple of puddles he must have had one or two in the night as well. We managed to catch him and got him over to the vets who had to sedate him to examine him and take bloods. Net result, slightly high temperature and elevated white cell count. May be an infection or something like a tumour.
They gave him a couple of jabs, antibiotic and anti-inflammatory but it's just guess and hope. If he continues fitting then we'll have to call it a day as giving him pills just isn't an option and with the other cats medicating food isn't feasible either.
Paid the (are you sitting down?) £144.00 bill and brought him back home. He jumped out of the basket, hissed at me and vanished out of the cat flap like a flash. He's snuck in to eat but he's out there with another of our cats probably saying how evil I am. It's quite warm here tonight, about 10 C I'm just hoping he hasn't got epilepsy and we can get some trust back. If it is epilepsy then it is the end of the road.
It's pretty grim at the vets, with the others I can calm them down and stroke them - stroking Rufus at the vets just scares him more. He's no cuddly lap cat, basically we're just a hotel but I'm so hoping he's alright.