Dear Jude Friend,

Jude had a pretty good month since she only had a couple of grand mal seizures and neither of them required the rescue medication, which is always great news. She also had a different kind of seizure this month.

It was just after 3 am one day when I heard Jude making strange noises in her playpen. They were not quite the sounds of a seizure, but not normal either. I went to investigate and found her acting strangely. She was awake (unlike a grand mal seizure) but she was opening and closing her mouth like there was something in her mouth that she didn’t like; there was nothing in her mouth. She was a little disoriented and quite angry. She was growling, even when I wasn’t touching her, and seemed unsettled. She kept scooting around her pen, growling and doing that strange thing with her mouth. This lasted about 20 minutes. I gave her some food, which she ate very happily, then she finally settled down and went back to sleep. I had taken a video of this strange behavior for the vet team, and they think this was a focal seizure. IN the past, she has had cluster seizures quite a few times, and grand mal seizures most frequently, but now she has this new kind of seizure. It certainly wasn’t as bad as a grand mal—not even close—but I will be keeping an eye on her.

Jude and her new roommate, Eli, are getting along very well. Eli is calm and doesn’t bother Jude much. While Jude does like kittens, she does not like kittens that are hyper and jump on top of her. With Eli’s neurological issues she cannot jump on Jude, plus her personality does not seem to be hyper and excitable.  So Jude is quite happy with this arrangement and is content to have Eli as her roommate. The other day they were lying very close to each other, not quite snuggling, but getting towards that, so I am hoping they will be snuggling soon.

Eli went for a consult with a neurologist and had an MRI, which showed her issues are due to trauma of some kind. It looks like she was injured by some kind of whiplash, which caused trauma to her neck and the top of her spinal cord. She has improved since arriving, so we are hopeful she will continue to improve. She can walk, and even run (awkwardly) now, which is a big improvement from when she arrived.

Jude needed a few baths this month.  We know how much she loves a bath (not!)! A few of the baths were because of the seizures, as she had urine on herself. She also had a few more days of loose stool, which she managed to get smushed into her fur, which also required a bath.

One morning I gave Jude a bath early because she had some poop in her fur. A couple of hours later I was doing a phone interview with someone who is interested in a job with us. I was doing the phone interview from home, and all of a sudden I heard all this strange sound coming from Jude’s room, so I went to see what was happening. Jude had gotten into Eli’s playpen, which is open during the day, and she had tipped over the litter pan, scooted herself through Eli’s wet food, and got it smeared all down her side—she was quite a mess! This is all happening while I am trying to be professional and conduct a phone interview. I tried my best to clean Jude up as best as I could and tried to keep talking to the person I was trying to interview at the same time. It was quite difficult because Jude was growling the whole time I’m trying to clean her up. Such fun! Although, anyone who is interviewing to work at Tabby’s Place should understand these things happen when you work with animals.

That’s all the Jude news for now. Thank you for your help and support of our little Jude.  We appreciate you so much!

Your correspondent,
Karina