Gizmo

Happy Mother's Day! 




Gonna change things up a little bit this week. Usually, I talk about a comics series or TV show or movie or book that makes me happy, because those are things that readers of this blog can also experience, if they so choose. This week, though, you’re just going to have to take my word for it: my kitty Gizmo makes me happy.

My other cats, Rumplestilskin and Morticia, also make me happy. I don’t have a favorite among the three. All three are rescues: Rumplestilskin joined our family in 2013, following the passing of our beloved Penelope. Morticia joined us in 2014, because my wife wanted more of a lap cat than Rumple turned out to be. Then, in 2015, we fostered a trio of kittens. The two females (who we named Melinda May and Penny, after our beloved Penelope) were adopted. The male, Gizmo (named after the character from Gremlins, because of his kitten ears), found his way into our hearts, and we adopted him into our home.

While Gizmo is the newest and youngest addition to our family, he’s the only one who has grown up almost entirely with us, and entirely in this house. (We adopted Rumple and Tish while still in our previous house, and as adults.) We also got some Gizmo-related good news last week, and that in particular made me happy.

While we were still fostering Gizmo, we noticed his eyes seemed a bit swollen and runny. The vet gave us some eye drops for him, and some ointment to spread on his eyeball. (If you’ve never applied ointment directly to a living eyeball, I can’t really describe the experience.) After a few weeks of treating him, we realized we were too emotionally invested in him to let him go. Plus, he was a sweetheart. Really, we had no choice but to adopt him.

Because we were concerned about the other cats getting whatever condition Gizmo had, we kept him isolated from the others for a while. Eventually, our vet told us that if our other cats were going to catch the eye thing from Gizmo, they probably would have by now, we let him out into the rest of the house. He was happy to be with people and other cats, and Rumplestilskin, in particular, was happy to have a little buddy to play with.

Adopting Gizmo was one of the best decisions we could have made. He’s almost three years old now, but still as playful as a kitten. He’s also super-smart: we had to put a childproof lock on our pantry door because he learned how to open doors. 

He can also be pretty demanding. His current favorite toy is a cat dancer, and because it’s on a wire, we can’t just leave it out for him. We keep it in a drawer, and as you can see, he knows exactly where it is.

Unfortunately, his eye problems persist to this day. The vets believe he has the feline herpesvirus, and since he has had the condition since before we adopted him, his insurance won’t cover it. One day in 2016, we received this photo from our pet sitters.

When we got home, his eye had completely clouded over. It cleared up over the next few hours, but we were panicked. The vet sent him to an eye specialist, who prescribed some different drops. He also told us that the condition was exacerbated by stress. Since Gizmo had visited the vet just two weeks earlier, and since the symptoms take about two weeks to manifest, that was kind of a relief. We were still upset, but felt better that it hadn’t been our trip that had caused the stress.

Over the next two years, we’ve been giving Gizmo his eye drops three or four times a day, and for the last year or so, he’s gotten a pill twice a day. He mostly puts up with it, but some times, he’s clearly more upset about getting his medicine than others. Some days his eye looks better, but other days, it’s as drippy as ever. We were starting to feel pretty despondent about giving him the medicine, because we didn’t see any improvement, and we did see some increase in his stress about getting it.

Last week, we took him to the eye doctor for his annual physical exam. As usual, they welcomed him back, but he wasn’t having any of it.

However, the vet was very surprised to see that Gizmo had greatly improved. He said his symptoms were 70-80% reduced. Apparently, the drippy eye will be the last symptom to disappear, which is why we weren’t seeing much change. 

After hearing that, we feel much better. It may still be a long road to recovery, and Gizmo’s condition may never completely go away. Or it may go away and return. But at least we’re making progress. He may get a little frustrated at the medicine, but as long as we’re able to give it to him without stressing him out too much, we feel more energized to keep doing it. 

The news about Gizmo is what made me the happiest in the past week, which is why I’m sharing it with you today. Even if I can’t share Gizmo himself with you.

And that’s all I have this week. See you next week!