Just about Kiki

It's been a couple of scary months for me - in animal crisis mode. My beautiful cat, Asia (aka Kiki), suddenly lost tons of weight, and I, being on the Road, had my good friend/housesitter take her in to the vets to get her teeth cleaned as she seemed to be having trouble eating. They did a regulation blood test before the other procedure, and that test showed that she had a hyperthyroid condition, as well as a piece of grass stuck in her throat. They got the grass out, and then she was put on Methemezol, one of the choices for that condition, but did not alert me or my friend that nearly 20 % of all cats do not tolerate this medicine.

She was one of that 20 % and the medicine caused her to seriously decline. It began a series of cascading events, each of which was treated with another medicine, another procedure. Many hundreds of dollars later and after much emergency 24-hour treatment for my Kiki, we were told there was nothing more that could be done for her and she was likely dying of liver cancer. My poor little cat was down to 4 pounds, terribly jaundiced, and at death's door. I made it home, drove down to Oregon, gathered her up at the vets, and took her home to die. For one whole week, I hovered over her, hoping to tempt her with food and water, both of which she refused for a full 10 days. I would weep and weep, and pray for her to go whenever she wanted to. She would look up at me with her incredible green eyes, take my hand and hold it against her chest, trying to help ME. I would take her out in the sunshine, and she would totter around, at one point showing me where she wanted to be put when she passed. At the end of 10 days, I had to go to LA for the Changer show, so I left her there, reasonably comfortable...and weepingly headed north to catch a plane for the south. Judy and I came back to Seattle after the gig, and were heading for our office, and found ourselves at a stop light. To our right was a building we'd been observing on a daily basis as we drove to work. It had a sign proclaiming: COMING SOON! NATURAL VETERINARY CARE! Judy looked at me, and said, "We're going' in!" So we pulled over, and walked toward the door, just as this beautiful woman was opening it for the first time. We came in, and spoke at length with Dr. Kate Fernold, our new vet. She listened carefully and nodded, and said" Ok, here's what we're going to do..." She explained what was going on, said that Kiki was fasting, and was getting rid of the medicine which had poisoned her whole system. She sent me back down to Oregon, armed with raw, organic chicken liver, some holistic medicines, and most of all, Hope . I cut up the chicken liver in tiny, tiny pieces, and placed it in front of the Kiki . WOW!!! She began eating...no, wolfing all the food. I dropped to my knees, weeping, so happy to see her eating. She looked at me as if I were nuts, and said, "What?! I'm starving!" Then we put water there for her enjoyment, and by golly, she began to drink...alot! So for days on end, I fed her and watered her, and took her outside for sunshine and fresh air...but no grass! She slept a great deal, resting, eating, watering, but no longer tottering! Cool! She had been just bones, but now was gaining some weight. She got up to 41/2 lbs. on the baby scale I bought, and then we decided to attack the hyper part of her thyroid. So I drove her up to Seattle where she was ensconced in the upper room at Dr. Kate's, where she resided most comfortably while, again, I went on the Road. When I got back, she had gained weight, was feisty (oh good!), and ready for the magic bullet, a dosage of radiation, targeting the hyper part of her thyroid. Turns out this is a very common thing in cats, so much so, that there are entire clinics devoted to this procedure. She received a small dosage (3 Curies), stayed overnight and was back at Dr. Kate's the next day. Now her thyroid could function normally instead of eating all the calories. She is back in Oregon now, where she is most comfortable, and up to 7 1/2 pounds, fer gosh sakes! So...I am telling you all of this so that if some of you are facing health issues yourself or with your pets, you may want to consider consulting alternative physicians. Dr. Kate, for example is classically trained as well as naturopathicaly trained, so that we could receive a more holistic picture of Asia's condition. Dr. Kate consults over the phone, so you don't even have to live here to engage her help. What I want to say to you is: don't give up. There are many roads to the Truth of a thing. If one doesn't pan out, try another. Don't be afraid to go beyond what you know. Asia would tell you these things, I know she would! (And - if you would like to contact Dr Kate - please email me - cris@criswilliamson.com - and I will get her info to you - and happily answer any of your questions.)