Our cat “the Bo”

This is our cat, Amy. We call her Amy, Am-Bo, or just “The Bo.” Her mother Tina adopted us when my husband and I lived in Honduras in the 90s. Tina became pregnant and one day she showed up all skinny, and we wondered, hmm, well where’s the kittens? So we followed her to a neighbor’s generator shed and found 3 squeaky little bald littens all curled up around one another. I gathered them up in my shirt and brought them to our house for safekeeping.

Our caretaker told us he already had promised one of the kittens to a neighbor, who had a rat problem. He took one before she was weaned and a month later brought her back, thinking she might die. She was all bones and full of fleas. We cleaned her up and put her back with Tina who was still nursing. She was half the size of the others yet grew rapidly with the proper nourishment.  This was her a couple weeks after her “rescue.”  Pretty scrawny looking thing, huh?

We decided at that point she’d never leave us again.

I coordinated a spay/neuter clinic on the island and brought down a vet from Houston, Charlie Evans.  Charlie and her assistant, Mike worked non-stop through the week and spayed 97 dogs and cats.  Charlie and Mike were just awesome!  Sadly we lost touch with them after we moved back to the States and would love to find them.  Anyway, we definitely lowered the population of feral dogs and cats on the island.  Amy was one of the first patients. Notice the hand vac for hair after she was shaved.  We were a high speed operation!

Ruth and Charlie Evans at the “clinic” in Oak Ridge, Roatan, actually underneath somebody’s house (circa September, 1997).

Now Amy’s 13 and was just diagnosed with kidney problems. We are taking the holistic approach and not giving her any drugs. She gets raw food and herbs that help cleanse her body and strengthen her kidneys.

So if you have an older cat and notice she is drinking a lot of water all of a sudden, it’s quite possibly the first warning sign of kidney problems. Get her checked out and formulate your plan of action. Here’s a site that has some great information http://www.holisticat.com/Home.html