The Cat and I (III) - She vomited blood!

Something happened to the stray cat which I often feed last Saturday.

As usual, I was walking around the neighbourhood trying very hard not to attract Mimi (I have recently named the cat - Mimi as in 猫咪’s mi) to walk with me. After the third round, she saw me and was following me from behind. I wanted to finish my fourth round before feeding her, thus shoo and signal her to wait at the particular spot. She walked with me for some distance before stopping at the spot.

Minutes later, I was on my way to the spot to pick her up when I saw her running towards me. I called out to her as usual and she was pretty excited. As she moved closer to me, I noticed something wasn’t right with her. Patches of her fur was covered with blood. I had thought she got into a fight with other cats and felt rather bad about it. I petted her on the head and she responded back rather excitedly then, thus thought she is fine apart from the wounds.

We walked back to the usual feeding spot together. Usually when I was emptying the food from the can, she would be pacing excitedly around it, but that day she did not. She moved away instead. I signal her to come over and she did. I noticed her mouth was red and blood was dripping from it. I had a scare and was so shocked. She did not seem to notice what was wrong and started cleaning her furs with her bloodily tongue. The blood started to tint her white fur which explains the patches of blood on her fur earlier on.

As she cleans, the fur becomes dirtier and she cleaned the area more furiously. Blood was still dripping while she did that. I started tearing. I was so afraid that it is dying. I repeatedly called out her name, trying to gage whether she is fine. But as cats get into “cleaning fur” mode, they would just ignore calls. Then as suddenly as the blood came, she lied down, looking tired. She closed her eyes. I panicked and called 100 to see if there was any emergency veterinary around. The officer gave me a number to the Animal hospital at Mount Vernon which I called immediately.

Animal Hospital: Hallo, Mount Vernon Animal Hospital.
Me (sobbing sound): Hallo, I found a stray cat vomiting blood. Can I bring it over?
Animal Hospital: Sure, Mdm. We opened 24-hour. But just to let you know mdm, the consultation fees is $321 dollars excluding treatment…
Me (stopped sobbing briefly): Huh? $321 dollars?
Animal Hospital: Alternative Mdm, you can call the SPCA. (Gave me the numbers).

Throughout the conversation, I shook the cat hopping that it would response. It did after some shake. She had closed her eyes briefly because it was windy… (WTH)

SPCA: Hallo, SPCA.
Me: I found a stray cat vomiting blood.
SPCA: Is it still alive?
Me: Yes.
SPCA: Our driver is away at the moment. You might have to wait for one hour before we can pick it up.
Me: Huh? Where are you all located? I will send it over.
SPCA: You want to send it over? We are located at Braddell.
Me: Ok

All the while, Mimi is only used to me petting her and has never allowed me to carry her. I tried very hard to try to carry her, but she did not want me to lift her. Going back to “fur cleaning” mode, she sat at a corner continue to clean her fur. Occasionally, she will still vomit blood. I tear up even more seeing that. I cried even harder when I see her so indulged in cleaning her fur. How can God make animal so innocent that she is not even aware of her serious condition ? I feel for her.

Mimi is not just another ordinary stray cat to me. I was very much attached to it because she responses to my call and the sight of her cheers me up. I was feeling very down some time back and she is the only thing which I looked forward to seeing everyday…

I had no choice but to call SPCA to pick her up, but stopped eventually. I got worried. She looked and behaved fine, though a bit weak. If I sent her to SPCA and the test returned bad, she might be put to sleep… I could not bear to send her to die like that. That night, I stayed for a few more hours with her before going home.

The next morning, I woke up and went down to check on her. She looked tired (guess like me, she wasn’t a morning cat) but generally fine. She managed to clean up her bloody fur which signifies that she has not been vomiting blood in the night.

I am somewhat relieved, but still worries that her condition will turn bad. I have genuine concern about her and am willing to fork out some money for her to see a vet. However, I did not realize veterinary clinic charges so much for consultation. I am now trying to find a cheaper veterinary clinic so that I can send her there (that is she would let me carry her…)

In the meantime, I hope God would bless Mimi and keep her healthy!