Day 25: The Fatties Boombalatty

Gee, Mom, do you HAVE to leave?

These were the kids before the child came along.  The Fatties Boombalatty.  All 3 are litter mates.  And all have multiple health issues.  Yes, it's true. I have defective cats.  Good thing they are neutered/spayed, because it's pretty obvious they were dealt a crappy hand, genetically speaking.

I adopted them in 2001, right after I graduated from vet school.  My plan was to find two ancient cats who had numerous health issues (ya know, senior diabetic hyperthyroid cats in kidney failure, with a touch of mange?), but were very nice.  Instead, I adopted three young, healthy, semi-ferral, aggressive cats that urine mark.

Why yes, the word SUCKER is on my forehead. Why do you ask?

The fat beast on the right was completely unhandlable for about a year and a half.  The one on the left would randomly panic and scratch the hell out of me.  The one in the middle would occasionally tolerate me.  Now?  The one on the right follows us around the house and drools when he's purring, the one on the left doubles as my pillow, and the one in the middle is the bravest cat I've ever met.

Since I've adopted them, we've gone through lymphoma with Orange and Gray, IBD with White, hyperthyroidism and anxiety issues with Orange, and a severe degloving injury with Gray that ended up needing a skin graft to fix. Remember what I said about brave?  She put up with five months of bandage changes and four surgeries, and only bitched that I kept her in a cage at work.  If I let her run around the hospital, she was happy as a clam, huge bandage and all.  One day, maybe I'll post the photos from that.  Or not.  They're pretty gruesome.

I took this photo on my way to work.