Monday, January 31, 2005

A CAT NAMED ELVIS WITH APNEA....

My cat has apnea. Prior to coming into our lives 9 years ago Elvis had a hard life. He belonged to drug addicted, mentally ill, abusive woman named Candy. Elvis’ function in her life was of Mouser. He was expected to survive off the mice he caught in Candy’s apartment. He was fed cat food a couple of times per week but basically had to fend for himself by stealing food off the plates that Candy and her friends would leave laying around the apartment or by foraging in the garbage.

As a result of digging in the garbage and snatching food off plates Elvis was often beaten. This left him with a fear and distrust of humans. One day Candy moved away abandoning Elvis in the apartment. The thing is she didn’t tell anyone he was there so when the buildings’ handymen came to repair the damages done to the apartment they patched all the huge holes in the walls, plastering and painting over them. What they didn’t know was that Elvis had gone in through one of the holes in the wall looking for food and was was sealed in. A couple of weeks went by and people started complaining about an incessant meowing coming from within the walls. When the super heard the meowing for himself he took a sledge hammer to the walls and rescued Elvis. When he was pulled out from in between the walls he was near death, weak, starving and dehydrated. My mom and the super nursed him back to health. They even managed to find him a home with a friend of my mom's but it didn’t last more than a day because the lady's son was terrified of the cat and that's how Elvis came to be ours.

My mom named him Elvis because of the way he saunters when he walks. One day an friend of Candy’s was in our house and recognized Elvis and told us of all the abuse Elvis had endured. My mom then decided to just leave Elvis alone and let him get to know us, little did we know it would take years! We’ve had him for 9 years and it took 5 years for him to trust us. He never allowed anyone near him , if you tried to pet him he’d bite you. Now he’s as loving as could be with our family. It was only last year that he allowed us to pick him up and that’s how we found out he is actually a “she” but we still refer to Elvis as a “he” old habits die hard.

The other night Elvis was sleeping on the sofa, the house was so quiet you could hear her deep and loud snoring. My mom was a few inches away from her and noticed that there were a few times when Elvis stopped snoring and seemed to stop breathing, only to flinch and start up again and resume snoring. My mom spoke to the vet about this and he said it’s Apnea…lol So now whenever he’s asleep my mom makes it a point to check on Elvis and make sure he’s okay… Oh man. A cat named Elvis with apnea!

Labels: pets

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