The Special Kitty

     It will be two years ago this coming August that we brought home two kittens from the humane society. The story goes that their entire litter was found one morning in someone’s wood chipper. How horrible! And how lucky that the man working the chipper that morning looked inside before turning it on.

Gizmo was totally black and totally a hellion. His sister Emma was calm and demure from the start. Even driving them home, Gizmo was all over the truck while Emma sat in the back of the cat carrier not moving.

In retrospect, maybe Gizmo was so wild for the same reasons that Emma is special. Last spring when the weather got nice, he just wanted to be outside. We didn’t let him out much as he was still pretty small, but he still got away from us. The saddest part is never knowing if he wandered off and found a new family or met a tragic end. 

Just this spring, Emma is finally wanting to go outside, but that will never happen without close supervision. Emma has a neurologic deficient.

When she was still just a kitten, a few months old, she started spinning in circles whenever she was walking through the house. And if she was excited about something, she’d spin even more. She also can’t jump like a normal cat, and when she walks, her hips sashay back and forth like a cheap hooker. And though she meows once in a while, she mostly makes frequent “purr-up” noises.

Stairs really throw her off. (Sorry the video is so dark.)

You need to watch the video to fully appreciate my special little girl

At least she still has her big brother, Ches. 

Maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised, when she woke us up early the morning of March 12, shaking the whole bed, her limbs thrashing uncontrollably. After the second seizure, we took her to the vet. After the fourth one, we started her on phenobarbital.

The vet explained that sometimes if the momma cat has distemper while she’s pregnant, that it can cause part of the kittens’ brains to not fully develop. Oh, that makes me so sad. How many kittens have been born with neurological disorders because owners haven’t gotten their cats shots? Or how many unwanted litters have been born because people don’t get their pets fixed?

But I wouldn’t trade my very special Emma for anything.