A Scare with Daisy

Daisy is a vocal, crazed, wild (albeit loving and cuddly) baby girl – who has earned the nickname “Crazy Daisy Maisy”.  One Saturday (while I was out-of-town) Daisy slept all day and remained uninterested in food or play, quite out of character – She lives for food and play!  John (a man who is typically oblivious to details) concluded that something must be wrong.

He mentioned his concern when I returned home that evening.  I immediately paged Alfred at North Country Animal Hospital.  I left him a message saying that I didn’t want to sound like a neurotic new mother, but that I was uneasy.

Since her arrival, Daisy seemed to have trouble.  Soon after she ate, she would gag and choke for several minutes at a time, sometimes puking.  We went through this with Jackson as well, so I wasn’t too concerned.  He grew out of it……perhaps they were simply eating too fast.

A few days prior to Daisy “being under the weather”,  I was awakened at 3AM by the sound of a cat choking. I jumped out of bed and there was Daisy, crouched under my bed, with a tiny piece of colored felt extruding from her mouth.  I grabbed it and pulled.  Out came a soaking wet 10+ inch piece of  a cat charmer.  It was longer than  she was!!  I don’t even want to try to guess how she was able to chew off a piece of the toy and swallow it….

I wondered if this was the cause of her being so lethargic; perhaps her esophagus was irritated.

Alfred instantly returned my call, and instead of telling me not to worry, as I had expected, he retorted “Kittens can slide down hill very fast, I want to see her tonight, tomorrow morning may be too late”.

We were supposed to be meeting friends at a local brewery, so I offered to bring Daisy to see Alfred and perhaps meet them later if she was okay.  Daisy seemed to perk up a bit once I got her to the car.  I made the drive in 20 minutes; Alfred and Jamie met me at the door, I had interrupted their steak dinner.  “No worries”, they said.

Alfred took some x-rays and gave her an IV to fill her petite body with fluid.  She was NOT happy.  She perched herself on the highest point within reach, Jamie’s shoulder. She mewed angrily if Alfred or I went near her.  Clearly she was feeling better!

Based on the x-ray, Alfred seemed to think she had the start of pneumonia.  He gave me some medicine and sent us on our way.   He thought she would be fine.

I joined my husband and friends at The Moat, sneaking Daisy inside with me.  Her soft cat cage appeared to be a duffel bag.  It was very crowded and VERY loud. Daisy was sound asleep.  I placed her under my chair and checked on her several times throughout the meal, still sound asleep…. I was a bit worried throughout the night (okay very worried), I barely slept, waking up every few minutes to ensure that she was breathing.

The next morning, I rose and headed to the kitchen.  There was my Crazy Daisy, back in action, excitedly meowing, jumping into her dish and demanding her food!!  She has been fine ever since.

Who ever thought a 2 foot long cat charmer would be a dangerous toy!! Needless to say, all string toys are now stored inside a draw when not in use.