I came across some old pictures of our cat Tonto and looked up my diary entries regarding a time when she was ill.
Dec 15 1981
Tonto is very sick. Very lethargic and won't eat. I'm worried.
Dec 20, 1981
The vet said Tonto will surely die. He thinks its's feline leukemia. He said we could draw some blood and send it to the lab to confirm, but by the time it gets back all it will tell us is what she died of. He gave her a vitamin B shot and told me to bring her back in two days if she's still alive.
Dec 22, 1981
Tonto is still not eating and is losing weight. The vet gave her another shot of vitamin B and told me to try to get her to eat and drink water.
Dec 23, 1981
Mixed some milk in baby food to make it liquid and used an eye dropper to get it in her mouth. She will swallow a drop or two. Same with water.
Dec 24, 1981
The vet gave her another vitamin B shot. She is down to 6 pounds. She is surely dying and it's breaking my heart. She is so small and helpless and has no idea what is happening to her.
Dec 26, 1981
I thought Tonto would surely die tonight. She could barely move and was breathing poorly. I decided to stayed up with her because I thought she should be near someone when she went. I got out her eye dropper and all the treats I had been making for her to try to get her to eat - egg yolk and milk, liver pate and milk, and some water, and put them by the sofa. Opened a bottle of wine, put her on my lap, and found a Pancho Villa movie with Wallace Beery on the TV. I must have fallen asleep, I woke up with a start and Tonto wasn't on my lap anymore. She, and all the food I had laid out, were gone. I found her in the kitchen, sniffing around the place where we used to put her food, looking for more to eat! I immediately got out all the delicacies that I had been making for her, plus I opened a can of regular cat food. She ate more in 15 minutes than she had eaten in a week. I woke Lori up while Tonto ate. It was 2 AM and Lori and I lay on the kitchen floor laughing and crying and watching her eat. The fever had broken and she was getting better. She beat the disease!
I won't quote any more of the diary, but Tonto did survive for another 6 or 8 years. She had some permanent damage to her brain, which caused periodic seizures and she was thin until the day she did die.