I remember when Egypt first came to Happy Hills Animal Foundation. His owner brought him in along with another cat, Furby. She included a letter about ho wwonderul they were in with their things. It said Egypt loved to be held and rocked and that he and Furby were inseperable. I do not remember why she was giving them up.

 

Egypt was sleek and in great shape, I looked at him and thought "wow! what a gorgeous boy! Surely he will get adopted soon!' His companion Furby was a beautiful longhair grey tortishell. Half her face was orange and half grey. At first they were housed together and adjusted fairly rapidly to shelter life. To try and give them more space, they were put in cages next to each other. Furby seemed ok with this, but Egypt stopped eating and became depressed. They HAD to be together.

Time went by and no one adopted them. One woman came in, looked at them and said that their colors clashed so she didn't see why they needed to be together. Then, finally, someone at least wanted to foster them. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that at least they would be in a home environment and I wouldn't be tempted by them every time I saw him. Months went by and still no permanent home for Egypt. I assumed that, as with many fosters, the people had decided to keep him.

 

Then I received a phone call from the shelter asking if I could pick him up. He had been dropped off at a vet, in very bad conidition. There was no sign of Furby. After soem investigation it came to light that he and Furby had been kept outside and Furby had dissappeard. Egypt had stopped eating, but how the people let him get to the state he was in I just cannot understand. When I arrived at the vet clinic I was horrified.

 

This huge handsome cat, who had been quite overweight when last I saw him, was emaciated and bright yellow. His fur was falling out and he had large bald patches, his skin was flaking off. But he looked up at me and his eyes were bright. He nuzzled my hand when I patted him.

 

The vet gave me the bad news, he was in liver failure and would need intense care if he was to have any chance. I assured them I would do my best for him and keep in touch with them. Everyone there was worried that i was just going to put him down, but I looked at him and said that no, he was still wanting to live so I had to try.

My vet who was not very encouraging. The bloodwork the other clinic had done showed that Egypt was no longer producing any new red blood cells, my vet gave him less than a 5% chance of making it. But he knew me, so told me what I needed to do. 200mls of SQ fluids every day, force feeding, Antirobe, and a lot of attention were what this boy needed. I learned from some rescue friends that Milk Thistle was beneficial for a sick liver, so I added that to his food. He would eat one or two pieces of kibble on his own, he was happy to see me when I went in his room. It took months, but soon he was healthy again.

  Furby was never found, nor did anyone know what had happend to her.  Animal Control officers looked at her picture, brought to them by the shelter manager, but none of them could recall seeing her.  We hope that she wandered away and was taken in by someone.

 

View details about Egypt's illness.

After the fire at Happy Hills I housed many cats as an emergency measure. Egypt was among those and I enjoyed having him here. But 40 cats IS definitly too many for my house! I am fortunate to have several friends who came over regularly to help me clean. The cats went back and I found myself missing Egypt. I learned some time later that Egypt had gotten sick again, but they had managed to pull him through. Still, more than two years after he was first brought there, he had no real home.

 

It is hard not to bond with an animal after such an intense bought of illness and recovery , but I kept thinking he would be adopted and was in a place he was well cared for. The shelter had trouble recovering from the fire and I heard of more worries developing there.  Finally I couldn't stand it, I contacted them and adopted Egypt, and one other cat (Walnut) who I had raised and who was special needs.