Meet Otis

If you remember, we got a puppy named Milo last summer.  Well, Milo has a new friend!  Meet our new kitty, Otis.

 

Otis has quite a story behind him.  We found him a couple months ago while we were taking a walk in our neighborhood, in some bushes behind a grocery store.  He was so friendly, and came right up to us, looking for attention!  But when I picked him up, I realized how absolutely SKINNY he was- just skin and bones!  I knew he must not have a home, and could tell that he would not survive on his own for much longer, so we brought him home.

 

We didn't necessarily intend to keep him (we have two other cats, in addition to Milo, who is a handful by himself!), but we at least knew we needed to take care of him immediately.  We brought him to a vet, and it turned out that he was disease-free, although he had two kinds of rare parasites, the worst case our vet had ever seen!  He also had a broken rib, which had already healed on its own (poor thing, was probably hit by a car at some point...).

 

So we decided to treat him, and hold off on deciding whether or not to keep him.

 

We brought him back home, and let him meet the other animals.  The other cats were pretty stand-offish (nothing new for cats, right?), but Milo absolutely fell in love!!  He could not get enough of this little kitty!  And so, we decided to keep him, and named him Otis.  If you're not familiar with the movie, "Milo & Otis", it's about best cat/dog friends named Milo and Otis!  In the movie, the cat is actually Milo, and the dog is Otis, but oh well!!

 

 

 

These two are absolute best friends, constantly playing and wrestling with each other, but all in a very loving way- it's so fun to watch them together!

 

 

However, Otis's story doesn't end there!  About a week before Christmas, we took him back to the vet to make sure the parasites were all gone.  The vet was listening to his lungs and got a very worried look on her face.  She said, "We need to get an X-ray of his lungs ASAP!"  He was x-rayed, and it turns out he had a hernia- his intestines and liver were in his chest, severely impeding his lung function.  Most likely, the hernia had developed as a result of whatever broke his rib at some point, and then had worsened over the couple weeks we had him.  But regardless, it was an emergency situation, and he needed surgery right away.

 

So here we were, a week before Christmas, with a cat we had found only a couple weeks previous, needing to decide whether to save his life with a $2500 surgery!  Tough decision, but how could we not?  He is such a sweetheart of a cat, and Milo was absolutely in love with him.

 

And so he got his surgery, and did fantastically.  When he came home, they told us he may be sluggish for a few days, don't let him climb on things, etc.  Holy cow, this cat was the happiest cat alive!  You'd never know he had just had major surgery! There was no stopping him, so after a day, I just let him do what he wanted!

 

And so that's the story of Otis.  He's doing great now, and growing like crazy- having a digestive system that works properly, and having food on a regular basis sure makes a difference! 

 

 We are so glad we made the decision to get him the surgery, because he has turned out to be the sweetest cat I've ever owned (and I've owned a LOT of cats in my lifetime!). 

 

 And as you can see, he is fitting in very well around here!!