Maggie

This is our kitten Maggie. She is about 7 months old right now...but she doesn't look it at all. She is quite small. B and I sort of inherited her when we moved in to our house last May...the barn cats had kittens and we probably found her and her siblings when they were about a week old, if that. We had to put Maggie and her siblings on a foster mom because their mom was not human friendly. Our hope was to adopt them out to new homes, and for that to happen, we needed them to be friendly and raised with human contact (somehow, none of them got adopted out...figures, right?). Maggie is a special little kitty. Very loving, and always wants to be on people if she can. She just can't seem to get enough attention. One of the quirky things about her is that she will just plop down in the middle of the floor and sleep. Doesn't matter if she is in the midst of everything, if that is where she wants to be, that is where she will sleep, and you have to go around her.

As a baby, Maggie always had a grouchy look on her face. Made me laugh. She was almost impossible to litter box train. The last of all the kittens...she was probably a month behind them. She loved to go to the bathroom anywhere near the litter box, and would hop right out of the litter box if you put her in it...only to walk a few steps and poop on the floor.

When all the other kittens got sick (as seemed to happen a lot...maybe since they were born barn kittens?), Maggie somehow stayed healthy, until the last wave of cold hit. She was hit the worst of all of them. We finally knocked it out of her with meds, but it came back again...and it seems we just can't get it to go away. She has had almost non-stop runs since she was young, and despite numerous trips to the vet, they can't tell us what is wrong, or what will fix it. She has the sneezes, and is very thin. After some research, I have decided to try my own experiment, and I am hoping that it will work.

I have moved Maggie upstairs, to our bathroom...separated from the other cats (we don't allow them in our bedroom/bathroom typically...we'd probably never get any sleep!). I figure our downstairs is too cold for her to get healthy...her body just isn't fat enough to keep her warm (and we don't run the heat downstairs unless we are down there...until we figure out a more affordable way to heat the area...which means it is quite cold most places in the house with the exception of our bedroom/bathroom at the moment), I have started her on the cold meds AGAIN, and am feeding her dry tuna, which I hope will fatten her up and take care of the runs, which can be from so many things (I read on many sites that it can be from so many underlying problems...I'm hoping getting rid of the cold will banish the runs...or maybe the change in diet?). So, I'm giving it a week, and will reevaluate after that.

I'll keep you all updated, but would love to hear if you have any suggestions as well, if you've ever had this problem with a kitty before!