Dear Jude friends,

Our little miracle boy is growing like a weed! For the first few weeks, we couldn’t get him to gain weight, no matter what we did. Now he is growing daily. He crossed the four pound mark!

All in all, Jude has been doing amazingly well, with just one bad day this month. A couple of weeks ago, he started having mini cluster seizures. He stayed completely aware during these small seizures, and they only lasted about 2 or 3 seconds. Because he was still aware of what was going on, he seemed quite confused by what was happening to him. I sat with him, held him, and tried to soothe him. These mini seizures lasted about 3 hours and eventually stopped.

Jude was very quiet for the rest of the day, and I was concerned. I called our vet team, of course, and our senior vet tech told me to give him a higher dose of his anti-seizure medication and to bring him to Tabby’s Place first thing the next morning.

The following morning, I arrived early with Jude. He had to have some blood taken before he received his anti-seizure medication, so it would tell us what his levels are. His levels were too low, so he wasn’t in the therapeutic range. This may happen again, because as he grows, his needs for his medicine change. I will be keeping a very close eye on him. Since we increased his dose, he has not had any issues.

This little guy sure keeps things interesting at my house. He loves my other cats, especially my paraplegic, Castiel. Jude and Castiel follow each other around and play together, and Castiel bathes Jude. I am including a picture of Jude with Castiel on the dog bed Jude bed.

He may only be four pounds, but Jude is already in charge. My two very large dogs immediately give up their beds for Jude, and he lays right in the middle of the huge bed!

Jude definitely does not see well, but he is finding his way around just fine. He found the food dish very quickly. This boy loves to eat! He gets boiled chicken every morning with his wet food (he’s a little spoiled), and he eats every last bite. Then he gets wet food three more times during the day, plus he has access to dry food all the time. No wonder he’s growing so fast.

Jude is still Mr. Cranky Pants when he wants to be. He can be so sweet and loving when he is in the mood, but if he is not in a loving mood, you’d better just leave him alone. He has had some slightly loose stool lately, and he sometimes gets some stuck in his fur while leaving the litter box and needs a bath. I’m sure you can imagine how he feels about a bath. He yells, he screams, and he flails about. I’ve tried to explain that I can’t leave him dirty, but he doesn’t seem to care. He is starting a new medicine to help improve his stool. I’m sure he’ll love that!

But even with his attitude and strong opinions, I can’t imagine life without this little guy. I am so grateful he came into my life. He is a constant reminder to never give up and to believe you can do anything you set your mind to. He has so many burdens in his life, yet he remains happy and fun-loving. He truly loves life, and we could all learn a lot from Jude’s can-do attitude.

Thank you for your support of Jude. This will be an ongoing battle against all his issues, but together I really think we will win the war. Jude is going to get to grow up and have a great life, and it’s all because of Tabby’s Place and your support.

Your correspondent,
Karina