"He sure is a sensitive little guy..."

Over the weekend, Ferris gave us all a pretty good scare. Doing construction on the front entryway was way more involved than we thought it was going to be. And way dustier than we anticipated. It didn't help that we didn't block off the area we were working on, so moldy insolation and dry wall particle dust went everywhere. We tried to keep Ferris out of the way as possible, for his protection just as much as ours, what with all the supplies and materials, nails and screws he could get into.

We kept him our room for the better part of the day. During a break I stowed him away in his room with food and water so he'd also have access to his litter box. We kept him in there for a few hours. He didn't seem interested in using any of those services, so I put him back in our room so we could have the front window's air circulation.

Once we were finished for the evening, Vin went into the room to let him out. It was there he discovered Ferris had had an accident on the bed, and was very distraught over it, hiding under our bed. Once he came out, he threw up all over the floor. Trying to comfort him so he knew it wasn't his fault, I knew there was something wrong with him right away. Earlier in the afternoon he had suffered, unbeknownst to me, an asthma attack. I thought it was a simple hairball he was coughing up.

After he was let out of the room, he was distant, trying to hide, slow-moving and visibly depressed. I figured it was just his shame of having an accident. Vin left that evening to go with our friend Curt to catfish.

After I settled in for the night, I noticed Ferris wasn't well at all. He had flopped into the office, where I was, and when I called to him, he wasn't responsive. I knelt down to pick him up and he was limp in my hands. He came to once I had him in my arms, but promptly wanted down. He crawled under my desk and laid his head down, his breathing labored. I called my friend Cheryl to come look at him. She would tell me if I was paranoid or not.

She agreed he didn't seem well so off to the emergency vet we went. Usually when Ferris is in his carrier he cries and yowls the whole time. Not this night, he promptly curled up into a quiet ball. Once at the vet he was so lethargic and listless. Two hours later, the doctor was able to see him and didn't see any reason to run tests. I do love how they give you worst case scenario to send you into a panic, though. The words "Kidney failure, and acute renal failure" were mentioned. Yes, I cried. But, she didn't see me paying for emergency rate tests and to wait until our vet could see Ferris.

We had to wait until Wednesday to take him because our vet was on an extended holiday for the labor day weekend. Those were the longest 3 days of monitoring and watching the little bugger to make sure he was eating, drinking, pooping and peeing. He didn't seem to appreciate the extra attention, not one bit. He couldn't bring himself to liven up, but he certain could flick his tail in a way that told me to leave him alone.

Overall Vin and I got him back on all four feet and his vet did a blood panel that told us he was perfectly fine. Healthy as a ... well, cat. No failure of any kind, just elevated white blood counts due to stress. The construction was dusty, smelly and loud, definitely not a fun place for a kitty. Cheryl said, "He sure is a sensitive little guy..."

She is so right!