Luna

Meet Luna Alstadt, my miracle kitty. My first meeting with Luna was during her spay back in August of 2009. She is the house cat of one of our purebred Angus cattle breeders, who I do a fair amount of work for.

This past winter, she came into the clinic as a very very VERY sick kitty. She hadn't eaten in a week and was very dehydrated. Her hematocrit (or amount of red blood cells) was very low, less than 5%. Two blood transfusions, antibiotics, and after almost 2 weeks in the hospital, Luna was discharged. She was my miracle kitty. All the doctors at my clinic and even the owner thought she wouldn't make it. She gradually recovered and went back to holding things down at the farm.

Two weeks ago, Luna was back at the clinic. She came in recumbent with a very low body temperature. Blood work was almost normal, just a low blood glucose. I had absolutely no clue what was going on with her. I was sooo frustrated and felt helpless. We hospitalized her and did everything we could for her, and she passed away the next night.

Then, it finally happened.... I cried. It was the first time I cried after loosing a patient. The hardest part was trying to keep it together on the phone to tell the owners. The owner could definitely tell I was torn up. Thank goodness the morning was slow, cause it took me almost half an hour to get it together and go back into the clinic.

My favorite memory of Luna had to be this spring: I was out working cattle and paused for a moment to look up the driveway. There was Luna strolling across the drive. A bird flew by, and wham! Luna was 3 feet in the air doing a flip trying to catch the bird. Such and acrobat! May she rest in peace.