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Dodger's Story
Dodger snuck into my life unexpectedly. Had I been forewarned, I probably would never had adopted him. I went to a shelter which was full of sick cats, as I found out later, with the intent of adopting a cat after the purchase of my first home. My family always had cats around when I was growing up and I missed that feline presence.
I chose to adopt a shy but gentle cat that was trapped in a cage in the corner all by himself and named him Crusher. I took Crusher out of the cage, let him wander around and followed him. At some point I realized I myself was being followed. I turned around and there was a little gray tabby with a white chin and red nose looking up at me with the name "Dodger" written on his flea collar in magic marker. It was fate. I said to him, "all right, you too".
Dodger then continued to follow me everywhere. He followed me to the basement while I was lifting dumbbells and would make me nervous as he sat under the weights. He followed me to the sit up mat and followed my head as it went up and down. I would take him out to a field for a walk and he would just follow me around. He would be with me when I was working on a project around the house, but he would never get under my feet because he would always dodge out of the way, hence his name. Losing him was like losing my shadow.
Dodger was not quite six years old when he died. He always had a sneezing and respiratory problem when I adopted him as a kitten. I could always hear his breathing and he would periodically sneeze with such a powerful discharge that it could land five feet up on to the wall. The veterinarian believed it to be the symptom of an ear polyp and suggested removing it, but I didn't want the chance of losing him under anesthesia or causing permanent damage and decided instead to replace the carpet with laminate and periodically touch up the wall paint. He seemed comfortable as he was.
Five years later, the polyp suddenly grew and hit his middle ear, causing him to lose his balance. The polyp then needed to be removed. I was shaking at the prospect that I would never see him again after the surgery, but the polyp was removed and he recovered his balance but was left with a permanent head tilt. It was also discovered that he was infected with Bordatella Bronchyaseptica, otherwise known as Kennel Cough. This was found accidentally as Dodger suddenly sneezed a huge chunk of discharge on the veterinarian's stainless steel table, enough to take a culture. The veterinarian had me try six or seven antibiotics. They never worked. Something else was going on here.
A few months later, Dodger started vomiting bile, was lethargic, and seemed not to be eating and was losing weight. It took me a while to realize this because I would leave a big double bowl of kibble for both cats and fill it when it got low, and I never knew if he was eating or not. I may have grown up with cats, but I sure didn't know how to take care of them.
The veterinarian said he had pneumonia. After the standard administration of a cocktail of pharmaceuticals and supplying Dodger with a vaporizer for a couple of weeks, back to veterinarian he went because he was still vomiting and continued to lose weight. I wanted the vet to insert a feeding tube so I could feed him manually, and he said that Dodger didn't need a feeding tube. He needed a transfusion because he was severely anemic and he was dying.
Once realizing that my vet could not help him, I transported Dodger to a large animal hospital located over an hour's drive away. They diagnosed him with cancerous Mast cells in his spleen. They gave him a blood transfusion and splenectomy. A feeding tube was attached to his stomach so that I could feed him through the tube with a syringe full of "prescription" food. I would do this several times a day. He would usually vomit it up. I tried smaller amounts but more often. He continued to vomit. He went back to the hospital seven times in two months because he continued to come down with pneumonia and would not respond to the feeding method.
This story could never do justice to the minute by minute roller coaster ride of the ups and downs, the hopes and disappointments we both experienced through the ordeal. His condition would get better and then suddenly take a turn for the worse and this predicament cycled back and forth every few days until one morning I woke to find him cold and immobile in a pile a vomit on the bathroom floor. I put him in the car and raced him to the hospital only to hear his last breath ten minutes before we arrived. An eleven pound cat was five pounds at the moment of his death.
Over the next year, there were so many questions as to what actually caused him to get sick and die the way he did. The veterinarians could not answer my questions, or at least, they did not want to speculate. I believe it was hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver) that ultimately did him in. This is a condition cats fall prey to if they don't eat for long periods of time. I based this conclusion on hours of internet research. In idle conversation with my family, my sister-in-law made a comment about raw food for cats, which sparked me to do further research regarding the multiple feeding options for cats and the quality (or lack of) the various brands of cat food. After a year of reading on the subject, I was convinced that the "premium" brand that I was feeding Dodger largely contributed to his poor health and ultimately assisted in killing him. He was a sick cat to begin with, but a natural and healthy diet over the course of his lifetime may have been enough to save him.
Therefore I have created DodgerzDen not only as a business and an educational resource, but also as a memorial to Dodger.
Michael Cecere
Founder
DodgerzDen, Inc.