Pirate Cat

When I got home on Thursday, Rilo greeted me at the door with her left eye closed. It was weird.  All evening, she wouldn't open her left eye and it was rather runny.  I consulted the Internet about what it could mean when your cat was closing one eye, and after becoming freaked out with stories of cats having their eyes fall out of the socket, I figured that she probably just got something in it, and if it didn't look better the next day, I'd make a vet appointment.

Even though she looked like a pirate with one eye shut, she was her old spirited bossy self, so at least I knew that she wasn't in pain.

On Friday, I got home from school to a quite pathetic looking cat.  Her pirate eye was half open and very runny.  It was 6 pm, so I called the vet's office right away to make a Saturday appointment before they closed for the evening.  I described her condition, and they fit me in for an afternoon appointment.

As Friday night progressed, her eye got better.  In fact, her eye was back to normal by the time I had to cart her off to the vet on Saturday.  However, no harm in getting her checked out.  It's been a while since she was at the vet anyhow.

Getting Rilo into her cage is quite the ordeal.  There's nothing she hates more.  I got her carrier out on Friday, and as soon as she saw it, she promptly hid.  After about 20 minutes, she figured the coast was clear.

On Saturday, even before I got ready to go myself, I seized the opportunity to pack her up.  She was snoozing on the couch, and I scooped her up and got her locked up in the cage before she knew what was happening.  As I was getting myself ready, I was treated to a cacophony of furious meows and the sound of claws trying to scrape through plastic.

The vet's office is about a seven-minute walk from my place.  As I was walking, many people expressed "poor kitty" at my pissed-off meowing caged pet.  When we got to the vet's office, we had to wait for awhile, and a couple of dogs walked up to her cage to check her out.  I was afraid she'd get scared, since I don't think she's seen a dog up close before, but she was too angry to care.  I think she just saw the dogs as someone else she could express her outrage too.

Once we were into the examining room, and she was out of the cage, she was fine.  The vet was impressed how chill she was.  I explained the eye problem to him, and he said it was most likely a flare-up of cat herpes that she probably caught back when she was at the Humane Society.  Like the herpes simplex virus in humans, it can lay dormant for long periods of time.  In cats, an outbreak of the virus can result in upper respiratory infections and ocular discharge.  These outbreaks are often caused by stress, but it doesn't seem like anything has changed to stress Rilo out on Thursday.  Who knows, maybe I didn't wake up early enough to give her treats.

Anyway, it was good to get her checked out.  The vet said she was in excellent health for an approximately eleven-year old cat.  (I don't know her exact age because it was estimated she was about 3 - 5 when I adopted her.)  Her only problem is that she's got some tartar build-up on her teeth.  The vet said that she could use a cleaning, and then he printed up an estimate for me, which would run around $1000, so ummm, I think she's gonna live with dirty teeth.

So now at least I know that if Rilo busts out the pirate eye again that it's just her herpes acting up.  Nice souvenir, there Humane Society.