Afer, a.k.a. Lil Miss Mouser, a.k.a. Afer E. Baby, Afer E. Grannie
I adopted Afer from the shelter in January 2004. I loved Afer from the minute I began volunteering there in June 2002. She’d been at Tree House since she was 3 years old (1991). I felt I didn’t have room for any more cats, though. She was adopted by someone else in the spring of 2003. However, somehow she escaped her new home and was on the streets for months. Honestly, we had little hope for a 15 year old cat loose on the streets. However, someone found her, and through her microchip she found her way back to the shelter.
In January 2004, she spent time in the shelter’s clinic with gastro-intestinal issues. That cinched it for me. I couldn’t stand it if she spent the rest of her days in the shelter. I took her home, at age 16. She’s flourished. She gets night crazies, and loves her catnip mouse. She loves to put the “younger girls” in their place, if they act up. (I do feel bad for the girls, but it’s so hard not to laugh at a little gray Afer E. Grannie all puffed up and looking like a little old woman with a walker whose hitting a hoodlum on the head with her purse.)
Afer loves to be brushed and petted, and will do “kitty yoga”, practically doing handstands her butt gets so high. She’s still nervous of being picked up or restrained, but we’re working on that. She’s doing extremely well, considering within her first week here I had medicate her. She likes to play with pom pom balls, her catnip mouse, catnip pillows, and plastic rings. She also enjoys napping in a donut bed, or watching the world from a windowsill.
Afer was diagnosed with kidney disease in August 2004. Fortunately, with treatment her values are staying fairly stable. I took Afer to the emergency vet clinic Christmas Eve, 2006 with labored breathing. She had 145 cc’s of fluid drained from her chest. She was able to come home Christmas Day. A visit to a cardiologist showed nothing significant – minor heart issues and very small nodules on her liver (too small to biopsy). So far, the fluid hasn’t recurred.
In May of 2007, she had a vestibular episode secondary to an ear infection. (It counts among the scariest moments of my life. I saw her begin rolling violently on the floor and just started screaming and crying as I tried to hold her so she wouldn’t hurt herself.) Once again, she amazed us all with a speedy and complete recovery! Go Afer!
Update: Sadly, I lost Afer October 10, 2008 to congestive heart failure.
Life of the Lintee Bean 