I was so hoping to have my baby girl with us tonight, but the vet wanted
her to stay the night for some pain-management. My poor little
Brandy-candy! She had to have seven teeth extracted, it was that bad.
Way back in the mouth, so they were hard to catch when she was examined
in July. Louie and I are kicking ourselves, especially Louie. How did we
miss it?! Logic tells me it's because we're not professionals, and it
was hard to tell. Like having impacted wisdom-teeth I guess. Of course,
I am not a logical person; I go off on seven tangents at once, typical
ADHD. But she's awake, though dopey; safe, and according to the tech, on
her way to feeling way better.

They did a biopsy on the gum tissue, emphatically stating that it has
less to do with the Big C than with the Big I, or B--infection,
bacteria. The doctor also thinks there may be some weird autoimmune
thing that may cause her body to go ballistic on itself, attacking the
teeth. Kitty lupus of the bicuspids or something. He found no lesions,
no growths, for which I profoundly thank God(dess). But her poor little
gums were horridly inflamed, bleeding. The weird thing is, she's not
even two yet. You'd expect this with an older cat. She was wild awhile,
before Marilyn found her and took her to foster. I'm wondering if this
was some gingival time-bomb that started a year ago, that we couldn't
even tell was coming. I've heard it can happen in humans. If that's the
case, then I want to hang myself for missing something. The vet told us
in July we should make time "within the next year" for a cleaning. I
don't blame him; she went then for her six-month tune-up, not a bunch of
x-rays. There must have been something just waiting to go bats in her.
My poor baby. Louie is devastated. She's got teeth left, of course, but
she so loves her crunchy food, and Louie is afraid he'll disappoint her
to the point of being unforgiven if he can't give Brandy her favorite
munchies. Maybe if we wetted it down a bit with some broth or something,
I don't know. I just feel guilty as hell. We go over these cats with a
fine-tooth comb looking for anything abnormal. I'm having a hard time
forgiving myself for having done anything to cause my baby girl pain, no
matter what the tech said about this being the road to Brandy feeling
better. I hope it won't do anything to her energy level or life-span.
Oh, God forbid...if I did anything to harm my Brandy, I'd call the guys
in the white coats to take me to the Happy Hotel before I did something
nasty.

She was a stubborn little brat this morning, for which I'm also
thankful. She gave me a good wrestle with my hand when I tried to take
her from the carrier, and a nice healthy bite, enough to make me
remember who's the boss. Why thankful? Because I think a cat with fight
is a healthy cat overall, and has the best chances of rallying. Fight is
energy, good healthy energy. Such a little spitfire, has been from the
start. I can't believe the shelter people thought she'd be
unadoptable--this little Juvie who literally reached out and grabbed me
from her cage, and curled into me when they let me hold her; this little
charm, who's friendly to everyone, and comes and sleeps with us and
kneads us when we're sick, and kisses us awake every morning. This baby,
unadoptible? Buffalo's loss is our gain.

The other cats feel her absence. Roxie and Odessa are edgy; Stosh,
Brandy's best buddy, has been positively moody, pricky and obstinate all
day. We're going first thing in the morning to get my Bit, and I have
the day off. It'll take God and Congress to get me out of this house
once we get her home. I want to make up for anything that would have
hurt my poor innocent kitten--I still think of her as my kitten, I guess
because she's my youngest.

If you all still have purrs to go around, keep sending a few to my
Brandy please... and also to my Louie, who's more beside himself than I
am. He blames himself. But then, I do too, illogical as it is. I'm not a
pro, and I have to repeat it like a mantra. If I were, I'd be at
Georgetown and not getting the verbal hell beaten out of me at a bank
call center!

Again, many thanks to one and all. You know, this is probably the only
group I go to anymore, because of good supportive folk like you...you've
kept me going through all this. Bless you, every last one of you!

Blessed be,
Baha