Dear Jude friends,

Our poor Jude had a heartbreaking month, she lost her best friend, Charlie, very suddenly. Charlie was not feeling well and barely eating, so he was taken to the emergency hospital to see what was going on. They kept him for a couple of days, then broke the devastating news; Charlie’s heart was giving out and there was nothing we could do. We had to let him go at the hospital, they wouldn’t even let him travel home, because they were afraid he would go into cardiac arrest. So little Jude didn’t even get to say goodbye, suddenly her best friend in the world was just gone and not coming back.

It broke my heart all over again to see Jude searching the bedroom for Charlie. She can’t see, so she always scooted around the room till she found him, only this time he wasn’t there. She searched for him for days, and it tore my heart out. I knew how much I missed Charlie, so I could only imagine how she was feeling. Jude has other cats around at home, but it was Charlie who made her feel safe.

Jude had one grand mal seizure this month, and her seizures have changed. Before, when she would have a grand mal seizure she would continue to seizure and be out of it for several days. Now she has one big seizure, during which her bladder lets go (which never used to happen), then 10 minutes later she is back to normal, and there’s no more seizure activity. I must say this way is better, as she recovers fast and the seizures stop.

Jude has had a lot of small focal seizures this month. These look like small seizures, but she stays aware of what’s going on, unlike grand mal seizures. During focal seizures her body will twitch and jump, mostly focused on her legs. Often one of her front legs lifts into the air, over her head. A couple of times she has fallen off the dog bed while having a focal seizure (don’t worry, it’s only about 2 or 3 inches high) because her body jumps suddenly. She looks a little confused, but then just continues on with whatever she was doing.

I think she has had more of these focal seizures this month because she was stressed over her friend being gone, as stress definitely makes her seizure activity worse, and she doesn’t deal with change well, so, while I don’t know for sure, I think missing Charlie has made things worse for our little Jude this month.

The other day Jude did actually let Castiel (one of my paraplegics) snuggle with her, so hopefully, that will continue. You may remember Jude and Castiel used to be good friends, but after Jude was spayed and went through a really bad week following the spay, she was very angry with Castiel when she was returned to the bedroom. She still wasn’t feeling herself, and when Castiel came over to see her she let him know she didn’t want him around. I think she frightened Castiel, so he hadn’t tried to approach her again till recently. Hopefully, they can resume their friendship, and maybe that will make Jude more content.

Jude still loves to play, and she has so many toys now! It amazes me the whole floor can be covered in toys, I leave the room for a while, and when I come back they are all gone! She loves to bat the toys around, but when they go under a dresser she can’t see where they went, so she just moves onto a new toy, and so on. Every morning it’s time to retrieve all the toys for the day, and by nightfall, they will all be gone.

I am still expressing Jude’s bladder each day (which she hates), so she doesn’t hold onto her urine for too long. She can go on her own, and sometimes does, but not very often. When I first pick her up to express her she gets angry, but as soon as she starts to pee she stops complaining and just lets me finish expressing her.

That’s all the Jude news for now. Thank you all for your continued support of Jude, we literally couldn’t do this without you.

Your correspondent,
Karina