Kenobi 2016, double hip surgery
Recently my two-year-old cat had a terrible
accident. We became aware something was wrong when we couldn’t find him. We
searched all over the house and looked outside, although he’s not an outdoor
cat. Perhaps he ran out without us noticing. No matter how many times I called
his name, he didn’t come. I started moving the furniture around to see if he
was hiding. When I pulled the sofa away from the wall, he popped out.
Our excitement at finding him dissipated when
we noticed he was limping, but I had no idea of the severity of his injuries.
My daughter then remembered seeing something white flash behind her when she was
vacuuming. We then realized he must have run to escape the vacuum cleaner by
hiding underneath the sofa.
That night, Kenobi rested in the corner of my
bedroom on a rug with his hips propped up. I noticed he was breathing heavily,
but when I approached him, he hissed at me. He felt feverish, and the next day
I took him to the vet. X-rays revealed he had broken both hind hips.
The vet prescribed some pain medicine, and we
elected to try the conservative approach first – bed rest for two months in a
crate. Follow-up X-rays revealed his hips had not healed,
and the left hip was actually more displaced than before. He didn’t appear to
be in as much pain, but he walked with a noticeable limp and couldn’t run
or jump up on the sofa or bed.
The right hip didn’t seem symptomatic, so the
vet recommended we just do surgery on the left hip, but there was another
problem. He had a heart murmur. Who heard of a two-year-old cat having a
heart murmur? Surely that couldn’t be anything serious.
Our vet recommended we take Kenobi to the
University of Florida Small Animal Clinic to diagnose the cause and make sure he
was healthy enough for surgery. I set an appointment, realizing the costs were
mounting for his treatment and questioning how much money was too much to spend
on a cat.
The results came back from the heart tests—Kenobi
had heart disease. As the vet described it, if you have to have heart disease,
his is the best kind to have. It was somewhat treatable with medication, and the
doctor felt he should be able to survive hip surgery.
I packed Kenobi up in the van and brought him
home. How difficult would it be to give a cat a tiny pill twice a day? Maybe giving
Kenobi his medicine would help me to remember to take my blood pressure
medicine.
We scheduled Kenobi for surgery, but then he
did something to his other hip. He couldn’t walk at all, and he was in as much
pain as when he originally broke both hips. It was Saturday and our vet was
closed, so I took him to the Small Animal Clinic at the University of Florida.
They sent me home with pain meds to make him comfortable until our vet did the
surgery on Tuesday.
I dropped Kenobi off at the vet three days
later, informing the doctor of the recent change in his other hip. They did X-rays, and the doctor called me on the phone and said Kenobi needed
surgery on both hips. He believed both hips should be done at
the same time because of Kenobi’s heart murmur, but he couldn’t do both hips
that day.
Arrangements were made to have the surgery
done the next day by an orthopedic specialist. He also arranged to have an
anesthesiologist to assist with the surgery because of Kenobi’s heart disease.
The costs had become steep, and several well-meaning friends suggested I should
put him down.
“Never,” I told them. God would provide the
money, even if it meant working a lot of overtime to pay for it.
The next day I took Kenobi in for surgery and
prayed. Matthew 10:29 came to mind: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And
not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.” Kenobi as well
as my seven other animals have all been rescued, and each one brings me joy.
The night after Kenobi’s surgery, I
called the vet and asked how Kenobi was doing.
“He’s doing okay,” the nurse said. “But he’s not eating or urinating on his
own.”
“Can I come down and see him?” I asked.
She put me on hold for a few minutes before
replying. “If you make it brief,” she said.
I drove to the vet and arrived within minutes.
Not many people are awake in the wee hours of the morning. The nurse took me to
Kenobi where he was resting in a small crate. As soon as he saw me, his
eyes lit up. The tech opened the cage and I reached in and stroked him gently
on the head. Sweet purrs filled the air. I smiled. He just needed
to know I hadn’t forgotten about him.
The next day I took Kenobi home and made him
comfortable. The vet prescribed morphine and he wore a small fentanyl patch on
his back. Eventually, the pain faded, and he became his old
self again. As I write this, he is even starting to play with toys and walk at
a brisk pace. He can now get up on the sofa using cat stairs I bought at the
store.
Surprisingly, a few days ago, my back started
bothering me. Maybe it was from leaning over taking care of Kenobi. Maybe it
was from some heavy cleaning I did and hauling away dozens of books and
donating them to a local bookstore.
I went to the doctor and got some muscle
relaxants, and now I’m taking lots of walks, hot baths, Ibuprofen, and Tylenol.
As I thought about the coincidence, I wondered
if God had something He wanted me to remember. Jesus Christ, when He died on
the cross, died for our infirmities. He took upon Himself the weight of the
world— our sins, our pain, and our hurts, and suffered an inhumane death on the
cross. Isaiah 53:4 states: Surely He (Jesus Christ) has borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and
afflicted.”
Perhaps God was showing me once again when
we care for others deeply, we feel their pain. We hurt for them and with them.
Did God use Kenobi, a two-year-old kitten from the Human Society, to draw me near to Him? I feel God’s love when I
love Kenobi, knowing without my sacrificial love, he wouldn’t be alive. I saved
his life because I esteemed his value even if others didn’t. I saw a greater
lesson, a greater message, and a greater story of love. Just as God cares for
the sparrow that falls from a tree, God revealed His eternal love for me through
Kenobi’s brokenness and healing.
Kenobi's hair is already growing back.
