Zoe

August 5th 2018, the day Zoe got a forever home. I was so excited that even before she came home, I had set up her bed, her litter box, her food and water bowl.

And finally she came, it was around 9pm. She was frightened and didn’t know where she was going so she fell asleep in the box. When I first saw her, I fell in love with her, she was curled like a millipede. She was so cute that I wanted to squeeze her so tightly she would die. I didn’t want to wake her up and scare her, so I took the box to my room and just kept it beside me and did not say a word. But deep down I was filled with enthusiasm.

After an hour or so, she woke up, frightened but that was the first time I saw her, she was a beautiful 3 month old grayish black kitten with yellowish orange eyes. She figured out that the smell in the room, the view, the people around her were all new and different and that she was in a new place which frightened her even more, so she just went under the bed and hid there. She was so scared to come near us at the same time she didn’t want to be left alone.

After a couple of days, her inner spirit woke up. She was always up and about. She used to observe every room, ever cupboard, every corner she could fit into. My parents who never wanted to keep her at first were also in love with her. She was a magnet that everyone was attracted to. She filled the room with positive energy. An alarm had to be set manually but Zoe was a natural alarm who would wake up at 5:30 am and ordered us to feed her and make her play. After a few days, everything/anything we spoke about was ZOE. She loved to cuddle, and never ever wanted to be left alone in a room. As soon as the person who she was with, left the room, she would also go behind him/her. She wanted to be loved 24/7 and not to be surprised she got exactly what she wanted always, when she made up her mind that she wanted to sit in a chair or on someones lap she was determined about it and people around her had to adjust and we loved it too. She was healthy and very playful until the tables turned.

A few days before October 10th 2018, Zoe was not eating well. So my family and I decided it was time to get her checked and vaccinated. We went to CUPA for her 1st check up. They checked her temperature and told us she had a mild fever which is why she was not eating well and also that once she is free from fever we can get her vaccinated. They wrote down a couple of medicines to give her and told us to come back after a few days.

We went back home and her condition kept getting worse, she started vomiting and was not ready to get out of bed. We took her back and told the doctor about it. The Doctor suggested that we do a test for Parvovirus. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_panleukopenia ). We prayed that the report should be negative but unfortunately the test reports was positive. They told us that there was no cure for it and the only solution for that right now was to increase the body’s immunity so that it can fight against Parvovirus. The doctors did not give us enough hope and I thought this was going to be the last chapter of Zoe in my life.

I came back home and burst into tears. My mind was blank and at that moment I blamed all the doctors for not finding a cure. My sister googled a lot about it and finally decided that we will start her treatment in a different hospital, Cessna Lifeline Veterinary hospital. She was so weak that she could barely walk and was not drinking or eating anything. We took her to Cessna the next day and explained the doctor about her condition and that she was tested positive for Parvovirus. They told us to come twice a day to the hospital for drips of glucose and some medicines to help her immunity system get stronger, that is morning and evening.

That is when Zoe’s road to recovery chapter started. Zoe had completely stopped eating. So the doctors suggested that we force feed her a particular caned food, so that little food would go into her stomach. It became a routine for me. Wake up, take her to the hospital which was 15kms away, come back home and feed her, take her back to the hospital, come back home again and feed her. They had fit a cannula on her right hand so that they did not have to poke her everyday. They suggested us to put a diaper, because she was not strong enough to walk herself to the litter box and then clean everything around her which she touched everyday with disinfectant. Though this was the hard times in her life, she was recovering until one day she went missing. It was October 24th, 2018. I woke up and could not find her. The whole day passed by and we did not find her. We were so scared because she was a dehydrated cat with a needle in her hand who could barely walk. All kinds of thought came to our mind, “What if she was chased by another cat/dog?”, “What if she fell from a height?”. My sister came home early from her office the next day to search for her. We asked around for her, looked at the places she used to go to, but couldn’t find her. Finally my mother saw her at a place from the terrace. She called out for me and I ran to see she was stuck in a basement of a house. We got her out and gave her little water and ran to the hospital. Then onwards, we kept a close watch on her, all our attention was on her and her recovery. After a month she finally started walking little and also used to fight with us when we used to force feed her. She started using the litter box herself. Finally some good news after a long time. Her dosage was reduced and the doctor told us to bring her once a day.

A month passed by and she started eating food on her own, not only she would eat on her own but also ask for more. Finally came the day where the doctors told we will do a test for parvovirus and it turned out to be negative. I could hear it echo in my head, “She is free from Parvovirus”.

On December 24th 2018, Zoe was free of Parvovirus. She completed her first vaccination and never had to come to the hospital until the next. They gave her a bath, clipped her nails and finally she was free to go home and we did not take her to any hospital for another year. She was a bit moody for a few weeks but now she wears a collar with a bell and walks around like a queen.