Quince's Story |
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Snugglebug's Quince
As told in the story of Willow's second letter, after three weeks all the kittens became infected by chlamydia and suffered a lot before we got the infection under control. Three of the kittens were worse affected than the other two. Cobweb had the worst of it followed by Moonshine and Quince. Cobweb was also the worst affected by a secondary herpes infection. The treatment was hard on the kittens as I had to give them medicine three times a day and at the same time clean their faces of the mucus and pus that affected their noses and eyes. The eyes needed the most attention as their eyelids stuck together and there was a buildup of mucus behind the lids which became pus if left for too long. The only way to clean them was to bathe the eyes after pulling apart their eyelids, followed by squeezing ointment in to combate the infection directly and keep their eyes open. Hard for me and even harder for them. We had to delay looking for homes for them so they were all still with us until January 2006. By then we had decided to keep Cobweb and as Quince also had tear duct damage we thought that would involve too much aftercare for most potential owners, so we decided to keep him as well. Quince did not have any real problems with his eyes, but from time to time they dribbled tears down his cheeks - every now and again he had sneezing fits which annoyed him! As he grew older the tears dried up and the sneezing almost stopped. Like the problem his sister Moonshine had, his digestion is not so good, but a steady diet of some particular dry and wet foods keeps him healthy. |
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In the summer of 2020 Quince was noticeably losing weight and
we adjusted his food to ensure that he ate all he wanted and
kept happy. He could still jump anywhere he wanted to and was
drinking properly. I haven't mentioned it before, but
Quince was a phenomenal jumper and looked as light as a
feather as he floated through the air! He was never a snuggly
cat with the others, but started to want to sit on my lap in
the evenings and sometimes during the day. During August he ate less and less, losing weight and looking thin. It was obvious that he might not last until his 15th birthday on the 14th September. About ten days before then he finally stopped eating by himself and I started to syringe feed him. He must have been feeling very weak as he didn't resist us. Both on the Saturday and Sunday that weekend I gave him more food that way, but he was losing strength, not jumping so well, and sleeping a lot. Sunday night he was hardly conscious and we spread a soft blanket on the floor with a small one over him to keep warm. During Monday night about 1 am I checked him and he was in a coma. When I got up at 7 am he was cold and stiff, but still laying as I left him when we had gone to bed. His full story will be written in a later Chapter of our History (link under menu, Text). He was 15 all but a week when he died on 7th September 2020. |
