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Olivia's Page
Note: Olivia passed away on October 4, 2001. What is written below was written in the years before she became sick. I have written the last entry in her diary below. I will have another special page for her soon.
Hi, my name is Olivia. The vet has guessed my age at about 16, although no one can really know for sure. The vet also said that I have a very young face! What a flatterer, purr, purr.
My story is something of a mystery, but I was probably dumped at a neighbor's house by a former owner. Lots of people dumped cats there, because their property was very wilderness-like, I guess. I lived in the neighbor's shed for a few years before my current human adopted me.
For a while the people who lived in that neighbor's house fed me, but then they stopped. The lady I live with now felt sorry for me and some other homeless kitties that the neighbor's stopped feeding, and started putting food out for us. I was a real scaredy cat, though, and mostly only came around at night. I still lived in the neighbor's shed, and that was fine with the lady, because she already had three cats, and didn't really feel like she could take another one in.
The lady put food out for me for about a year. Then one day, the neighbor got two big mean dogs!!! The shed only had three sides, so it was easy for them to get in and chase me around. I moved out. I am too old to be putting up with such nonsense.
I did what any kitty would do: I moved to the lady's house, and took up residence in their wood pile. Unfortunately, their wood pile is right by a very busy street. By this time, I had become braver, and had let the lady see me, and even pet me a few times. The lady decided that I could not live in her wood pile, because I would wind up getting squished by a car. She brought me inside her house!
I had turned into something of a wild kitty, although not as wild as Charlie, so the lady was surprised at how easy it was to move me in. I guess I was just ready for a nice, safe place! It only took a few weeks for her to get me into the house. The lady was going to find me a home, but then decided that she would just let me stay with her, because she thought I would be too shy to adopt out. I have to admit, I am still a 'fraidy cat!
I turned out to be a lot older than my new mom thought, and she was kind of sad that I won't be with her as long as she thought, but she loves me a whole lot anyway! It took a long time for me to really trust her, but now we get to cuddle and snuggle all the time! My mom always tells me how lucky she is to have me, purr, purr.
August 20, 1999 ~ Last night I gave my mom a real scare. I froze, then fell over and had convulsions. My mom didn't think I was breathing. She got real scared and called the vet. By the time he called back, I was breathing again, although I was panting. She took me to the vet the next day, and he said it was either a throat obstruction or a seizure. My mom thinks maybe a throat obstruction, since I do get furballs sometimes. She told me not to scare her like that anymore! She loves me so much. She tells me all the time that I have a heart of gold. purr, purr.
August 25, 1999 ~ Well, I was naughty again and gave my mom another big scare! I had another seizure, and some little ones, too. She took me to the vet, and he says I have diabetes! I will be getting an injection every day, and will be on a special diet! My mom will update my page soon so that it looks nicer and has more information! I told her that after what she put me through at the vet, she'd better!!
September 7, 1999 - Things are not going well. I will NOT let my mom give me my shots. I always jerk away. My mom is mad at me right now because she couldn't give me my shot today, so now she has to drive me to the vet tomorrow for the second time to do it. She is not happy and neither am I! I will never let her do the shot, and we both know it. My mom says she will think of something so she can give me my shot every day. I say: Good luck, mom!!!
September 18, 1999 - My mom is pretty proud of herself, because she has managed to give me my shot six whole days in a row!! That was with me trying to bite her, too, purr, purr. Now I am acting kind of funny, like I'm having seizures again (but baby ones) so mom has to haul me off to the vet again. I have just about had it with all of these vet visits. Time to hack up a furball on her pillow when she isn't looking!
October 20, 1999 - Had another big seizure! My mom got to run me to the emergency vet in the middle of the night. The vet thinks my blood surgar had dropped too low, but it was back up to normal by the time I got there. It was NOT fun. My mom told me not to get sick at night any more, because she had to drive me 50 miles round trip, just to see the vet!
December 18, 1999 - I am doing pretty good! No more of those nasty big seizures! I need to go to the vet because my mom thinks I've lost a little weight, but she says I act like I'm feeling okay. I still hate those shots, though! I always try to make a big production out of getting the shots, even though if my mom is sneaky, I don't even feel them. Still, it's my job to keep the human on her toes!
January 17, 2000 - I had another huge seizure about two weeks ago. It is very scary when that happens. This time, though, my mom finally thought to give me karosyrup when I was in the middle of it. The seizure ended 20 seconds later. Now we know for sure that the seizures are from my diabetes, when my blood sugar drops too low. Before, we all thought maybe I had epilepsy, too. The vet says there is nothing to be done to prevent the seizures. He says the most important thing is to watch how much I eat, but there doesn't seem to be any way to get me to eat more. My human wants to get more information on home testing, even though my vet says it would be impossible to do on me. I also had my shot dosage increased to 2 units twice a day. My mom was not thrilled, because I make it hard enough to give the shot once a day. For the last two days in a row, I have hid in my kitty condo all day, and didn't have to have my morning shot. I just like to make things more challenging for my human!
***purr***
January 18, 2000 - My mom is a little worried about me. I am having strange tremors, mostly when I'm asleep. They affect just my legs. Another trip to the vet!
~July 29, 2000~
Well, my neglectful mom has finally decided to update my page. I must say, it is about time! Six months is a long time for my page to be ignored. Mom is such a lazybones.
A lot has happened in six months! First, my insulin was reduced to one unit, once a day. My mom had already dropped me from two units twice a day to two units only once a day, because she was seeing too many insulin reactions in me. After the vet dropped me down to one unit of insulin once a day, I continued with that for a while, but then my mom noticed that I even seemed to be reacting negatively to that, too.
This led to our latest vet visit. My vet ran some tests, and guess what? I AM NOT DIABETIC, ANYMORE! What great news! No more shots! Let's hope this lasts! I am a very, very happy kitty!! The vet says that sometimes (but not too often) kitties will get over having diabetes. I guess I am one lucky kitty!
November 30, 2000 - Just a casual update! I am PURRfect. Just ask my mom. I will even be 17 in January. I haven't had any seizures lately, and I'm feeling really good. I love living here with my human!
June 30, 2001 - This is Olivia's mom. Olivia's diabetes came back in April. She is not responding to insulin so far. The vet doesn't understand why not. He subtlely accused me of not giving her her shot, and I set him straight on that. Olivia also has also been diagnosed with an epilepsy that has nothing to do with her diabetes. At one point, she was having up to 100 petit mal seizures a day. Last week, Olivia lost most of her sight to a prolonged seizure. That sounds bad, and it is, but she is still a happy cat. She has only rarely ever left my bedroom since I got her four years ago, and knows the room like the back of her paw. She gets around quite well, and still enjoys her cuddles. If I thought it was time, I would take her to the vet, but I still think she has a lot of quality of life left.
October 2, 2001 - I was going to post today about how well Olivia has been doing the last few months. She had a very rough month in July, but turned around and had two great months in August and September. I am happy that she had these two good months.
Today I came into the room and realized that Olivia was having a seizure. Unlike her previous violent seizures, this one was quieter and not as noticeable. At first I even thought she might be asleep and dreaming. Then I saw her head, and realized she was panting and her eyes did not look right. I'm under the impression that the seizure had been going on for awhile when I found her. I rushed her to the vet, where she is right now. This particular seizure was brought on by a drop in her blood glucose level. The vet checked her blood glucose, and at first it read 38. He checked again, and it was so low it didn't even register. If I had been at work and had not found her, she would be dead. The vet was at last able to get her glucose levels back up to normal this evening. She is spending tonight at the vet's. He has warned me that Olivia is very, very sick, and even if she pulls through this, there is a good chance that she still will not be okay. I think he is trying to warn me that she might be "crashing" from her diabetes.
October 7, 2001 - Olivia passed away on October 4th. She never recovered from her last seizure. She lost what little remaining vision she had, and was never fully responsive again. I did not realize when I wrote the last message how poorly she was doing. I still really thought there was a chance that she would pull through. However, when I went to visit her in the vet hospital the next day, it was very obvious to me that she would have to be put to sleep. The vet said Olivia didn't have any idea what was going on, but I think she knew I was there. She was just too sick to be really responsive. Even after this, I let her stay in the hospital one more night, because the vet said he wanted to give it another night to see if she improved. I wouldn't have felt right if we hadn't tried everything possible. She became worse during the night. The next morning, I came in and held her on my lap while the vet put her to sleep. I think she sort of knew I was there. The vet said that he suspected a brain lesion and/or a stroke, in addition to her diabetic problems. She was one very sick little kitty. I thank God for the time we did have.
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