She hadn't purred for almost 6 months.  She was diagnosed with
chylothorax and fibrosing pleuritis (scarring of her lungs from the
chyle sitting in her chest cavity) in May.  She had a *very* grave
prognosis, had her chest drained twice, was supposed to die.  The 2
vets kept preparing me for that, said her chances of survival were less
than 10%.  They said she wouldn't be able to get her chest drained
again probably because of all her lung damage.  She took lasix and
rutin, very gradually improved.

Starting about 2 months ago, she started acting pretty normal
again...playing, eating more, doing all her old things.  Gained her
weight back.  But still never purred...not because she wasn't happy,
you could tell she was happy, but we figured some internal damage had
been done and she was not able to do so anymore.

Her breathing continued to look odd as though she was pushing the air
in and out with her abdominal muscles rather than her diaphragm (I
think that's how it works).  A week or 2 ago I noticed her breathing
doesn't really look that odd anymore...almost like a normal cat now.

Last night, I was brushing her, and loud purring began!!!!!!!!!!!  My
little girl is back to normal again.

Candace

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace