For the month of August, we feature Peaches! I really cannot say enough good things about this cat. She was absolutely fantastic! For all of you who had the pleasure of knowing her, you know!
I met Miss Peachy Keen Cobblers (LOTS of nicknames with this one) on my observation day at my very first vet tech job. There was a couple looking to adopt her that day and I was crushed. At the time, she was a small, orange, tail-less fluff ball leaking diarrhea everywhere she went. Needless to say, the couple declined. Their loss! In all seriousness however, the Manx is a malformation of the spine that someone thought was cool and turned into a “breed”. Many Manx cats have elimination issues, mostly the inability to control what comes out and when.
From that day forward Peaches brought nothing but smiles. She was just so scrumptious that she made you smile every single time you looked her. She never met a stranger, purred on contact and lived life belly up and actually LOVED to have her belly rubbed. She did blow up like a balloon after being spayed as many females do and these were the “early years” before foraging. She did become a master forager however and lived well enough into her senior years and benefitted from the added enrichment I brought to the home after pursuing an interest in cat behavior. In fact, post house fire, everyone had gained weight due to downsizing while our home was being restored and if you have ever seen my foraging lecture you know that Peaches was my inspiration to lose the bowls and transition to using food puzzles exclusively for dry food. She did lose some weight, but we never stopped referring to her as our little orange footstool! Being that round with no tail did lend itself to some teasing. She was a literal ball.
Due to her size and inability to reach all of her parts to groom, she received sanitary shaves once a month, daily tushy cleanings, a bath a few times a year and LOTS of brushing (she loved it) and she also loved to be vacuumed and blown dry!
I took the job and brought her home my first week! I did everything wrong, I didn’t even tell Jake, and I just plopped her down and abruptly introduced her just like you are not supposed to do! When Jake got home, I just told him, “Somethings different, see if you notice.”
Living life belly up!
Peaches made it to 15 years old and like so many of our cats she had multiple disease processes all being treated simultaneously. We micromanage the heck out of chronic disease, when something breaks, we just keep fixing it for as long as they feel well and are thriving. One bath day well into her senior years she was hoping and jumping to get out of the tub far more that usual. When we finished the bath and blow dry, I realized that she could not walk! She had “blown out her hocks” or so her orthopedic surgeon explained. Hence, 6 weeks of splint changes every few days, a sidewalk of non-slip mats throughout the house and her recovery room all set up with her needs easily accessible. Did I mentioned she had diarrhea during this time too? This was quite a lot to manage but we did it!
In the end she went blind, but STILL FORAGED! Don’t underestimate your cats people! They are more resilient than you know.
The pleasure was all ours, Peachy Cobbs!
Peachy Cobbler Doyles, Doyles, Cobbs, My little bowl of Sherbet.