Mariah turned up on our doorstep around 5 and a half years ago at the age of 5 months old. With persistence and utter determination she not only made her way into our house but also our hearts. And that of our Rhodesian Ridgeback X dog Ralph who was 12 at the time. Anyone who meets her instantly fall in love with her and her personality. She is not a cat she is a little human in a cats body.
The end of 2013 was quite a stressful and
emotional one.
On the 11th of December my mum
accidently ran over my darling little kitty in the driveway. As she had decided
that she no longer wanted to lie in the flowerbed but instead wanted to lie in
our steep driveway and lick herself. Luckily for us and my cat Mariah, I was
standing at the end of the driveway at the time and was able to hit Mariah
slightly out of the way and stop my mum from completely running over her.
It was then a mad dash to the vet where we
were sure we were going to lose her. We knew she had at least a broken leg,
which was evident whilst holding her.
The beautiful vets at KVH took her off us
and immediately put her in an oxygen chamber. Later that night once she was stabilised
(around 9:30pm) they began to operate on her. 80% of her diaphragm had been
destroyed and had to be fixed and also a small proportion of her bladder had to
be removed. The operation was finished around 12:30am. Which we then had to
convert her to the Emergency Hospital, as she would have to be observed
overnight. This was because she had a large amount of air on her chest and a
small tear in her windpipe; they said they couldn’t believe she was still
alive, as most cats would just give up. After being observed and transported
back to KVH in a oxygen chamber. We were told she was now able to breath on her
own. Mariah stayed three days in KVH and finally we were allowed to bring her
home.
(two days after accident)
(first day home and instantly wanted to go outside)
Her leg still hadn’t been fixed so it was
highly bandaged, as they wanted to deal with the life threatening injuries
first. So we continued taking her to the vet to get her bandaged changed every
two days. A week later they told us that two of her toes had no blood going to
them and had to be removed. So they were removed that day.
Then on 23rd of December they
told us that the leg would have to be removed as there was no longer any blood
going to the remaining two toes, her stitches in her stomach also had to be
removed and cleaned as her stitches were infected. Later on in the day they
rang and told us that they could not go through with the operation as it was to
dangerous and Mariah had stopped breathing during the operation to remove the
leg. Luckily they were able to revive her, but she was to weak to go through
with the operation that week.
On the 30st of December we took
her in to get her bandaged changed once again. They looked her over and told us
that she was ready for the operation. So on the 31st of December we
took her in bright and early in the morning for her operation. Everything went
well and we were able to bring her home that night to celebrate the New Year.
(day before leg amputation)
Now the 4th of January and she
is slowly returning back to her old self, her fur is slowly growing back and
she is slowly regaining some of the weight which she lost following the
accident. She is still unable to properly walk but does give it quite a go. The lower half of the staples in her stomach are due to come out next
Thursday and the stitches on her leg and the upper body staples are due to come
out the following Thursday.
Well this was quite an emotional one to
write, just rethinking about that day and all that has been done to save our gorgeous
little kitty always gets me a bit teary.
