Leila and Me

I was beginning to feel like a fraud, being here when I don’t actually have a tripawd.  I have been calling Leila a semi-tripawd because she doesn’t fully use her leg and gets around on 3 legs.  I think I had lulled myself into a little bubble of denial that she is fine and that she could continue like this indefinitely.  Unfortunately that’s not the case.  I have heard back from my vet, who has consulted with two other specialists.  They agree that the best course of action will be to remove the pins from Leila’s leg and see how the bone holds together.  There are three possible outcomes from this.  Best case scenario, the bone will hold and she will be fine.  Alternatively, the bone could collapse immediately and they will amputate during the same surgery.  The worst case would be that the bone appears to hold, but later collapses, causing Leila a lot of pain and making it necessary for a second (well, technically it will be her 4th) operation.

So the operation is scheduled for next Monday.  Good job I’m not superstitious, I’ve just looked at it will be 13th.  We go away this weekend and I wanted to make sure I can be here for her after the surgery.  She doesn’t like the drowsy feeling of coming out of aesthetic or sedation. It makes her scared.  I think its because she’s not as aware as she usually is and she doesn’t understand what is happening.

I had actually booked her in for this procedure a couple of weeks ago, then changed my mind last minute.  My friend suggested I ask for a second opinion and I jumped at the opportunity.  That was when I found Tripawds, through Fang’s owners original worried post on a different site, wondering whether to amputate his leg.  I followed his story, understanding all of those feelings of worry, of being unsure of what was the right decision for Fang.  That lead me here, where I found so many others who have also experienced similar worries, and then relief that all has gone well and their pet is not only coping, but happy with life on three legs.

I’ve had time to think about it, to read the blogs of others and see pictures and videos of happy tripawds enjoying their lives.  I know Leila will be fine whatever the outcome.  I am so grateful that its an injury rather than cancer or similar which has caused this.  I am so sorry for those out there who continue to worry for their furbabies.

Here are Milo and Leila enjoying the sun.  Leila can climb up the scratching post using all 4 legs and can get down by herself as well.

 

Today I received some potentially good news in the form of a reply to an email I sent to a specialist vets in Calgary.  I sent Leila’s most recent x-rays along with an explanation.  One of their surgical team replied saying that there is some healing and that there is still bone to work with.  She asked for a few extra details about whether Leila can use her leg at all (which she can, but she is still not weight bearing on it).  I also sent the original x-rays from March so that they can compare.  They were very understanding about me not wanting to bring Leila on a 3 1/2 hour drive if there is nothing they can do, so they will try to give me the best advice possible and I will take her if we feel that there is a good chance they can help.  Despite all the travelling Leila has done, she still hates most of it.  Our last car journey, the 9 hour drive from BC to where we are in Alberta, was very stressful for her and consequently for me as well.

I am worried about getting my hopes up for her leg, but I am very grateful that I have found this website.  It’s nice to have people who understand what it’s like loving your pets like family.

These are her x-rays from 15th March 2015 and with the pins, from 24th June 2015…

“You don’t have two cats, you have one cat in two bodies.  Your cats are a single unit.”

This was said to me by a friend of mine, who is a very highly regarded feline specialist vet.  Which is why I can’t tell Leila’s story without Milo’s as well.

I am going to start our blog with the story of how we came to be ‘us’.

It started on a tropical island in Thailand.  I wanted a friend for the tiny white kitten I had been hand raising from a month old.  I had him and his brother together, but being far to young and his brother even tinier, Freddie had fallen sick and we lost him.  This left Milo alone for the first time in his short life.  He was sad.  I went back to the Animal clinic, the vet / rescue centre on the island, where Milo had been born and there, alone in a cage, sat a little black and white kitten with no collar.  I remember asking if she had a home and when the vet said no I opened the cage and lifted her out.  She snuggled into my neck and asked ‘can I come home with you?’  Ok so she didn’t actually speak, but I swear I felt her ask, and that’s the story I’ve told her many times over the last 5 years we have been together.

After persuading Craig my then-boyfriend (now husband) that we needed two cats, the next day I brought her home.  She was a little peeved to find an over-excited, over-friendly kitten trying to be her best friend, but eventually she came around.

She chose her own name as well.  Strange I know.  I just had no idea what to call her.  I started trying out all the names I could think of, saying them aloud whilst looking at her.  when I called Leila (most people would spell it Leela, but we don’t) she miaowed and ran over to me.  She does that almost every time I call her – unless she doesn’t want to, she is a cat after all.

All was fine for the next 4 years and 9 months.  We moved to a new house with a huge balcony on the 4th floor of a building and she decided she was going to be an indoor cat.  I was fine with that.  In April 2013 I started a two-year teaching contract in Bangkok.  The cats were coming with me but Craig was staying on the island.  We would go back in the holidays.  They were not happy.  Our apartment was much smaller that they were used to and the air was polluted and dusty.  I was seeing signs of stress in both of them which upset me a lot so Craig and I agreed that they would go back to the island to live with him.  Then he was offered a job in his home country of Canada.  By this time we were engaged and it was a good move for our future.  We had a friend who was willing to move into our beautiful sea-view apartment and look after the cats until we returned at the end of March to get married, pack up our lives and move to Canada, cats in tow.

With one week of work left, 4 days until Craig returned 2 weeks until our wedding, I got the call.  “It’s Leila.” My friend said, “She’s fallen from the balcony.  Her leg is broken and maybe her jaw as well.”  They had come back from a night out and found what the first thought was a tom-cat who had been in a fight.  When they picked up the cat and came into the light, they realised it was my terrified little Leila.

X-rays revealed that the jaw was not broken, just badly swollen.  Her right front leg was shattered.  The vet on the island could not fix it.  Leila had landed on a little breeze block wall, the corner of which broke her leg.  I found her collar there a couple of days later when I came from Bangkok to bring her back with me to a vet there, to see if they could operate.  They put pins into and along her bone with an external fixation on, which should hold the bone in place while it heals.  They did the best they could.

At the end of April Milo and Leila flew to Canada to be met by Craig’s sister while Craig and I went to England for 10 days to see my family.  Then we joined them in Canada.  They have done around 38 hours of traveling to get here.  I’m glad now that they did all of those ‘practice’ trips to Bangkok.

That is how and English girl, a Canadian boy and two Thai cats came to live in Alberta, Canada.  I will write about Leila’s medical progress (or rather, lack of) in my next post.  For now though, she is happy.