This is the first time EVER that Indy has slept with us. Normally, it's Cow, Bunny, Tiger or Cleo. Never Indy or Pole.
I thought it was a sign....good or bad, I don't know. Good, I hope!
Then, I thought it would be good for Indy to go out for awhile. After all, he's always enjoyed the outdoors.
So, I fed Indy first (he still has to be force-fed though he shows some sniffing-interest in food, but has no appetite to eat, poor thing), then I asked my husband to accompany Indy out to the road for some fresh air (if this thing still exists in Subang Jaya, that is).
I then went to feed the rest of my brood.
My husband came in saying Indy had gone under a car.
Oh oh...I need to take him to the vet when the clinic opens.
Well, never mind, we'll just have to wait for the neighbour to drive away. Indy will come out.
Soon, we went out to check and oh no...Indy was missing from under the car now.
We searched up the road several times, calling for him, looking under every single car and into every household's porch.
There was no Indy.
A thought occurred to me. Perhaps Indy had come to say "goodbye" this morning by sleeping with us, and he'd decided to pack his bags today as he's had enough car-trips, injections and acupuncture, and being force-fed an confined inside the house. He's running away from home today.
Sobs...
Where are you, Indy?
We looked again and again.
After some time, the taximan neighbour walked out of his house and Indy followed!!
Yay...!!!
It's Indy!!
This taximan's house is Indy's favourite chill-out space.
The taximan said Indy was in his porch.
Indy tried to go under his taxi, but I intercepted and called Indy.
Slowly, slowly, calmly, gently, I approached.
Oh, that crazy woman is going to catch me again, I could almost hear him say.
But Indy was very merciful (to me) and let me catch him and take him back to the house.
Sigh...back to jailhouse rock, he said.
At 9.45am, I told Indy we had to go to the vet's again. So I put Indy into the carrier and off we went.
Indy complained a wee bit in the car and outside the clinic while we waited for the clinic to open.
The vet examined Indy, took his temperature and Indy had a low grade fever of 39.4 degrees. Since it wasn't alarmingly high, the vet said to just monitor him. Indy was given his jab, which he now resisted quite violently. He had to be jabbed twice.
But despite the fever, Indy was perky. He sniffed around the clinic and was curious. He looked out of the glass on the door too. So the vet said despite still not eating, Indy appeared to be improving clinically. Let's not worry too much.
So we went home.
I brought him out to the sun since Indy loves the outdoors.
Busy grooming himself.
I noticed that keeping him confined inside the house (not a cage, but the whole house with the windows closed) doesn't make him comfortable. He doesn't groom himself at all. He just lies down and sleeps most of the time, looking dull and depressed. But once he is out in the sun, he does "cat things" again - like grooming, sniffing and scratching my car tyres.
Tabs sits with me on the swing as I sit out in the garden monitoring Indy's movements.
Poor little Tabs has been chased out by Cow and Cleo. Something must have happened to have frightened her so much that she dare not come into the house anymore unless we are at home. Now, she sleeps under the car right opposite our gate. The moment she sees any of us coming home, she quickly comes over, as though asking for protection and asking to come in.
You see how territorial Cow and Cleo are? And you'll understand what a nightmare it would be if I adopt another kitten. These two are alphas.
Indy enjoying the sun.
Me baking in the sun!
The female alpha, Cleo.
Indy wants to go out.
I let him out under supervision, hopefully he will pee and poo.
That's Cow looking so mild-mannered, right?
This is Indy's pee-poo spot, it's outside the house beside the road.
Here, he meets Tabs for the first time and they touch noses.
Indy had a good scratch of my car tyres.
Soon, it was time for his second jab. I've pushed it to as late as possible because it's supposed to be 12 hourly.
Unfortunately, a huge container truck had overturned in Subang Jaya, and that caused a HUGE traffic jam.
We reached at closing time.
I had a theory to propose to the vet. It's from my friend, Cathy. What if Indy had swallowed a foreign body, like a string? Cathy's cat had the same symptoms (almost, ie. not eating, mild fever, dull and depressed) until it passed out a piece of string after one week and all was well again.
The vet somehow didn't think so but did not disregard that possibility. But that would involved either surgery and giving Indy some mineral oil or laxatives to make him pass out the foreign body. Do we want to stress him further?
Then, the vet took Indy's temperature and it wasn't good.
It was 39.9 degrees now, which shows it's going up.
Sigh...it's back to the drawing board again now.
What IS wrong with Indy?
All kinds of "maybes" came up.
Maybe we should not have stopped the Baytril. The vet in PJ thought it was the Baytril causing Indy not to eat as Indy was displaying symptoms of Baytril overdose ("overdose" is a relative term), but Indy's been off Baytril for 3 days now and he is still not eating.
Our vet, on the other hand, thought the Baytril was doing its job.
That's when two vets had to come to a decision for Indy, and it was decided that we would remove the Baytril and hope Indy would eat again.
But that plan isn't working.
And we cannot re-introduce the Baytril after having stopped for 3 days. It would not work so well anymore. We may have to introduce another antibiotic.
Oh gosh...
As a consolation, our vet told me he encounters MANY complicated cases all the time where you don't know what is wrong at all.
But what are the possible causes of Indy's complicated condition.
We still do not know.
Our vet mentioned the possibility of FIP (which is fatal) and toxoplasmosis (which requires another type of antibiotic).
Oh dear...
Even these diseases have similar symptoms as Indy is having now.
The possibilities are endless.
What if it's a viral infection and it has to take its course?
Our vet reiterates, "sometimes the trick is just to keep the animal alive and let its body sort itself out".
I know. That is why I'm already giving Indy acupuncture treatments to make his body stronger, qi-wise. And let the body heal by itself.
And on the spiritual side, the elderly Mr Lim is doing distance healing.
I'm minimising the stress on Indy as much as I already can, force-feeding him only 4 times a day, small amounts each time.
What else haven't we covered?
I asked if our vet could please call the PJ vet and ask for an opinion. The call was made and the PJ vet would call back later.
We all waited at the clinic, way past closing hours.
And we waited until finally, it was really getting too late, so I took Indy home first.
Finally, our vet called to say he had consulted with the PJ vet and we shall see how Indy is tomorrow (temperature-wise) and take it from there.
Tomorrow, Indy and Bunny will have another acupuncture session and this time, it will be done at home. No more orchestra and all the travelling stresses.
I may have to cancel all my plans for this weekend in view of Indy's condition. House-moving would have to be further delayed. Public talks would have to be cancelled.
Please spare a prayer for Indy and please wish him well.
For me, I'm all prepared (not being pessimistic but just being realistic) that life is uncertain and I do believe that lifespan is determined, but while there is still life, we must do everything possible to make life as comfortable and as meaningful as possible because every moment counts.
Every moment that we are well and happy is a good moment. That counts.
I just want Indy to be well and happy. We cannot wish for a long life for anyone, but we can always make the efforts to make the moments count.
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