Hermosa - or Hermie for short!
So a couple of weeks ago - maybe even 3 weeks ago, I got a call - oh yes, right after I came back from Kansas when Alicia and Mickey were here. A call came from Rosi, who said they had found my cat. I looked around and thought, no way, I am not missing any cats!Well it turns out that back in October 2001 I had a litter of 3 kittens and one of them was Hermosa - although I don't recall actually naming her, but some days we would pick names that were unusual for kitties, just so we could give them a personality trait.
I evidently fostered Hermie when she was a kitten and she was then adopted by some one from the Santa Clara Humane Society, but as often happened with these kittens, I was the one who would take them to the Vet to get their shots, spayed and neutered and chipped. So Hermie still had my name and address on her chip.
Rosi who is also going through cancer treatment wasn't able to take this cat home with her, but she was very sick, half starved, and dehydrated and just needed some TLC, someone to give her her medicine and re-foster her to get her ready to readopt through Town Cats, so since I'm such a cat lover, of course I said sure, I would help foster her, but I didn't think I could adopt her because I already had my quota of cats that is legal.
Mickey and I went to pick up Hermie and brought her home on Tuesday. She was very sweet and loved to be held, purred and easy to give medicine on a twice daily basis, but she wasn't recovering very well. So back to the vet we went on Monday night. With the help of some IV fluids and cheap cat food - Friskies, she started eating again and perked up. So I brought her back home on Tuesday after work with instructions to inject fluids! Well needless to say, I had never set up an IV line, let alone given fluids to a kitty. I knew the basics, but really actually doing it myself... Praise God for online videos that give instructions. I found one to set up an IV bag and it gave great instructions. Now I'm an expert for kitties! At least until the next time I have to do it...
So I was looking through my old pictures and found a picture of Hermie when she was a kitten. So I know exactly how old she is. She was probably born in September 2001 based on the age she was in the pictures. I will attach them here for you to see. She is the middle kitten with the least white on her nose.
Today was also a momentous day because I had to put my kitty Charles - a female cat that I have had for 20 years or so who helped me raise Putchka, to sleep. Her kidneys were failing and she had lost 6 pounds and was failing fast. I will miss her little cajoling noises to let her in the sit on my lap. My vet Dr. Jaime at Story Road Animal Hospital is the best vet and he truly loves cats. He has always given me the greatest advice and care, and even adopted some of my stray kitties I have rescued! :-)
