Dusty Business

Here’s a gratuitous photo of the newest member of the family taken a few weeks ago. He’s not mine, but I have unlimited cuddles. He is a very affectionate and friendly little fella and he’s already grown big. So big that he’s booked in for his little operation in a couple of weeks! I have always had a big soft spot for ginger cats. I've had two and both were very special.

And here’s another gratuitous kitty photo – of my pretty girl, Harley. I have a soft spot for black cats too - Harley is my third black cat, fourth if you count Huggy who was mainly black with a little white. I really don't understand why black cats are so often overlooked.

It’s been a while since I blogged about Dusty. He’s been doing well, although still not up to the amount of exercise he was used to before his leg operations. It’s hardly surprising considering what he’s been through.

At the beginning of the summer holidays I thought it was time to take him swimming in the sea again. He enjoyed it – unfortunately his poor stomach did not! He swallowed too much sea and was hurling up gallons of water when he got home. In all the times he’s been swimming in the sea, this has never happened before. I made sure he drank fresh water little and often and kept a close eye on him.

He soon picked up, but wasn’t quite himself. He lost some of his bounce over the next few days and was leaving some of his food. It was hard to say exactly what was wrong except he just wasn’t right and when the vet checked him over, she said there wasn’t anything obvious and I could wait and see how he got on, or she could do blood tests, so I opted for the blood tests.

This brought back memories of how Tilly was when she first got ill with liver problems and how devastating the results of her blood tests were. I was so relieved when the vet phoned a couple of hours later and said the results were fine, but his white count was high indicating an infection somewhere. She said to take him straight back for an antibiotic injection and some tablets.

It was like a miracle! Within a few hours of that injection he was bouncing round again, keen for his food and so much better. Within a couple of days he was completely back to normal. He’s been back in the sea once since then, but only briefly! What and where the infection was is a mystery.

We usually take him to the recreation fields to exercise as they are nice and flat, but now we’re throwing in the occasional walk on rougher fields where he can go in and out of dirty ditches and enjoy a bigger variety of interesting smells.

I think what he loves most of all is being able to mooch about with Poppy again.