Sarah and her Momma-Ariel started coming to our back door to eat in the summer of 2002. I had seen Ariel for a few months before but never noticed that she was pregnant. The day that she showed up on our back porch with a small kitten of about 3 months old just stunned me. It was so obvious they were momma and baby. I decided right then we would have to make a place for them in our home.
Sarah was a feral-wild kitten. She would not let me touch her at first. Even after being with us for 5 months she would only then let me pet right under her chin and she was not too crazy about that. Her Momma was more human friendly. I suspect Sarah was born out in the wild and never had any human contact until we took them into our home.
Sarah had diarrhea from the day we took her in. Now they tell us it was likely an allergic reaction to something she was eating since her diarrhea cleared up after I changed her food.
By the end of January- about 3 months after we took them in Sarah really started to come around to me. She was letting me pet her more often and she had started to play with toys. I started letting one of our other cats-Junie Bug- visit with Sarah and Ariel everyday. Sarah took to Junie Bug and would try to smell her and play with her tail as it dangled from the window perch.
After about two weeks of Junie's visits I started letting more of our cats come around and this seemed to captivate Sarah. She loved watching them all and would run up to them occasionally and sniff them. Then she would run back just as fast to her safety spot.
I would spend two - three hours a day just sitting with Ariel and Sarah in our garage and trying to gain their trust and love. I watched TV with them, listened to the radio, read books to them, and played with them with toys. I was totally in love with them both!
Tragically one day in March, I went to feed Ariel and Sarah breakfast and noticed that Sarah was walking funny. She could not seem to walk without falling over. I rushed her to the ER vet and they looked her over and sent her home with meds. She was very full of life at the vet that night. She was running from them and did not appear as ill as she did at home.
By the next day however it was evident she was only getting worse. She could no longer walk. She was basically crawling and dragging herself from one spot to another. We took her back to the vet that day. They ran test and did bloodwork and could not find a cause for these sudden neurological signs.
We kept her at the vet for 5 days on IV fluids, and assorted meds trying to help her get through this. Everyday she only seemed to get a little worse. We had to make the hard decision to have her put to sleep on March 21, 2003.
I had a Necropsy done on Sarah because there was some suspicion of rabies, FIP, and a number of other contagious and deadly viruses. We had to find out if Sarah had something contagious for the safety of all our other cats. The only findings were mild, small intestine enteritis. The final report said the only reasonable conclusion they could make was a metabolic disorder of unknown origin.
I was devasted by the sudden loss of this little kitten that I had so loved and cherished. She truly stole my heart from the day we took her in. I will miss her greatly and I know her Momma- Ariel has missed her so much. I love you and miss you my Little Angel Sarah. Be happy with Angels Jonah and Pooey until we can all be together again.
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