Mimi and the hospital.

Poor little Mimi had her first experience with the kitty hospital three weeks ago!

(If you aren't into reading the whole story with lots and lots of details, then proceed to the end of the post where the pictures are.)

So, when I came home from work on Thursday, I fed Mimi, just as I always do.  Within 5 minutes of eating her food, she threw it all up.  :(  Poor thing threw up multiple times in the next several hours.  I tried feeding her again later in the evening, and she just couldn't keep anything down.

She threw up all through the night, and into the morning.  She looked so sick, and I could tell she wasn't feeling ok.  Her eyes were dark, she was quiet, and she was hardly moving.

After freaking out a bit, I decided to take her into the hospital.

Naturally, I tried to get her into her carrying case to drive her in, but she was NOT having it.  I tried multiple times over the course of an hour to get her into her "Sleepy-pod"...as her carrying case is affectionately called.  Yeah right.

Fearing that she had some weird disease that would do her in over the next couple of hours, I felt like I needed to get her to the hospital fast.  So, I got creative.  Instead of trying to get her into her carrying case again, I got a cardboard banker's box out of the closet, and opened the lid.  (These are the boxes with the little rounded/rectangular hand holds on either side.  You know the ones.)

At this point, I was more concerned with her health and less concerned with her comfort during the drive to the hospital, so a cardboard box didn't phase me.  I dropped her into the box, and swiftly duct taped the top shut.  I immediately felt a sense of guilt for taping our kitty into a cardboard box (like i said, it didn't phase me).  I especially felt bad since I still needed to pull the car around from a couple of blocks away.  I booked it out of the house, ran a couple blocks to the car, whipped around the corners, and parked right out front.  All of this took no more than 2-3 minutes to complete.

When I walked back in to take Mimi down to the car, I was dumbfounded to see Mimi's sweet face, peering out from under the couch.  I looked at her, looked at the box, and looked back at her.  The box was still duct taped shut, and there were no immediate signs of breakage.  Ummmm...how did our kitty get out of a box that is still duct taped shut.

Answer:  Mimi is a dark magician.

I'm not kidding, she Houdini-ed her way out of the cardboard box within a matter of minutes!!!  I still have no idea how she did it.  She must have squeezed herself through the handholds in the side of the box.  Sheesh.  

Mimi - 2
Carolyn - 0

Back to square one.  Finally, I just ended up picking her up, bed and all.  I brought her straight down to the car where she rode to the hospital unbelted and unrestrained.  At one point during a red light, she crawled onto my lap to see what was up.  Always curious...even when sick.

To make a long story short, Mimi ate something that was blocking her system.  The hospital told us that she would need a $4,000 surgery if the foreign object didn't pass during the night.  Well actually, they told us she needed emergent surgery, but Don looked at the scan and decided we could wait. (sneaky Radiology move!)  She ended up staying in the hospital for the evening, hooked up to IV fluids in hopes that her digestive system would do its thing.

See foreign object below:

Here is sick Mimi, arriving at the hospital.

Poor little kitty.  She felt so sick the evening we brought her in. :(  Her eyes look so sad!

We visited Mimi during visiting hours in the evening.  I cried.

The next morning, we went back to see how she was doing.  She felt so much better in the morning!

We knew Mimi was doing all right when she tried to *escape* from her cage as soon as she saw us.  

"So, hey.  I'm really over this cone thing.  Oh, and take me home."

"PS - I love you"

Visiting hours the next morning.

The resolution:  Mimi did pass the offending object, sans surgery.  She is now back to her happy little self!

Well, except for a couple of awkwardly cute shaved legs.

So glad you are home, Mimi!!!