The HDU is Closed

I've closed the HDU (High Dependency Unit) because Ratty has moved to the garden. 

He's now somewhere between walking and hop-along but definitely mobile.  Time lapse photography (sort of?):

I wanted to call this post Miracle on 5th Avenue but I haven't.  One, because I think that might be bad karma, and two, my cat-radar is confused.  I am not entirely convinced that Ratty is 'all better now'.  He likes it in the garden and having made a nest for himself in a hedge of bougainvillea and jasmine and cigarette bush, he doesn't want to come back inside.  That makes sense as until his accident, he had never been indoors, so he is in his element.  But he is also not very interested in eating, which isn't the old Ratty I know and love.

He spent the night outside, safe in our walled garden and this morning I made Marius haul him out of the shrubbery and put him on the patio in front of a plate of sardines.  Ratty ate a little but then sloped back off to the jungle, where he is now.  Marius said he put up quite a bit of resistance, wriggly and kicking so he doesn't seem to be ... er dying.  Maybe he is simply fed up with being a patient (I know how he feels)?

If there is something wrong, I won't try any more heroic nursing, I will let him go.  If not (and maybe he knows this in his cat bones?) we will arrange for him to be neutered.  Then we will let him back out on the street to fare for himself, still feeding him when he calls round and looking out for him.  As I said, my cat radar is confused.


Here he is enjoying the delights of the garden:

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Ratty in the HDU

We are making progress, snail-like, determined. 

Ratty has finished his course of antibiotics.  I am still force-feeding him the 'recovery' vet food, but half his meal is now 'sardines in aspic' which he eats himself.  Eats is perhaps too polite.  He practically inhales it, he likes it so much. 

the 'sphynx' position, head up!

His neck and shoulders are getting stronger and he will happily stay in his sphynx position for 10-15 minutes without wobbling over.  He washes his front paws and chest and this morning, I saw him washing his right hind leg.  He'd got himself half up and twisted around and was busy with his tongue.  I think the grooming is a very good sign of returning to cat nature, self awareness and self care, to say nothing of returning strength:  on Thursday he could do nothing himself, not even lick around his own mouth.

paw washing

I am sure his eye-sight is back to normal or near normal.  Yesterday we played with the feather and he tried hard to bat at it and eat it, while this morning, when he was sitting up having his breakfast, he caught sight of another cat, who he was most interested in and wary of:  his own reflection in the piano about 3 metres away.

I would like to take him back to the Vet who saw him last Monday, and who supported our decisions not to euthanise him, and who discharged him from hospital last Wednesday night.  I think it would be reassuring to have a professional, objective opinion on his progress, and especially a neurological assessment.  Depending on how well I am tomorrow, I might even attempt this feat on my own.

not elegant, maybe, but it works

We are cautiously optimistic.

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