Sarah

It's amazing how something so small and innocent looking can be such a little devil. This is Sarah, a 7 month old Burmese kitten who, along with her sister, Felicity, have pretty much taken over the household. She has her quirks. For example, on any given night, morning actually, sometime between 2:00 and 3:00 AM, she will decide it is the most important thing in the world that she be petted. If we're not awake when the decision is made, we must be awakened. Did I mention she is extremely persistent? She also loves to be up close to us at other times during the day, even if this requires jumping onto our shoulders from the nearest table or chair top.

My wife and I have been cutting her plenty of slack, though. She has had a bit of a tough time in her short life -- she was born with a constricted esophogus, although it took some time to find that out. Simply put, she had a terrible time trying to eat anything. After a trip to the vet emergency room after increasingly violent gagging fits, she was referred to an internal medicine specialist who, in turn, referred us to the Colorado State Vet School hospital for diagnosis and treatment. He knew that figuring out the problem would require a very small scope since she weighed barely 1lb.

The initial diagnosis was that there was nothing that could be done, but I insisted on one final test and that was when the constriction in her esophogus was discovered. After two "balloonings", along the lines of an angioplasty for heart patients, she improved to where she could eat a liquified diet. Next week there will be another and it is hoped with this one she will be able to eat normally and begin living a more normal life.

So, even though the temptation has been strong at times, mostly very early in the morning, to put a balloon over her head and get back to sleep, we'll make one more trip and hope for the best.