a real christmas miracle

bat & bandit: we're going to let mommy tell this story, because it's really her story anyway.

mommy: on christmas eve, i was in corpus christi visiting my parents with bat & bandit. that afternoon i drove my mother to my grandparents' house for a visit. on the way home, around 5:00 pm, we were coming back home, driving down a major road (two lanes each way with a turn lane in between) when i saw a cat in a lane going the opposite way. it looked as though it had been hit by a car, and i thought i saw it move. even though my mom was telling me it was dead and to just keep driving, i whipped the car around and pulled up just before where the cat was. my mom kept telling me that the cat was dead and not to get out of the car. i told her again that i thought i had seen it move. while we were having this argument, the cat lifted its head. i jumped out of the car, grabbed a blanket from the back and ran to the cat. there wasn't much blood, but her ear was bloody, as was her nose, and one eye was cloudy with almost no pupil visible. i gathered her up gently in the blanket and took her to my mom to hold. we drove to our house just a few minutes away, where i ran in to get my dad to come out and look at the cat while mom stayed int he car holding her. dad looked at the kitty and said that the damage to her eye indicated brain damage. i refused to believe that and decided to find an emergency vet. i went inside and called information to get a number, then called the clinic for directions. the clinic was about twenty minutes away, and the whole time the poor kitty was having labored breathing and my mom was afraid she was going to die in the car. we turned the cat over to the people at the clinic and signed good samaritan paperwork. this in itself was a blessing because i had expected to be charged just for them to look at the cat. after the vet techs got the kitty situated and in an oxygen tank, we discussed what would happen next. i was told that they would do what they could for the cat and then, if it survived, they would try to find it a home, but if they couldn't, it might have to be euthanized. i immediately gave them my contact information and told them i wanted to adopt her if she made it through all right. at the time, we weren't sure she wasn't paralyzed or suffering from internal injuries. well, we left the clinic with a promise from the vet tech on duty to call before she left at 11 pm with a status report. no call came that night, and by 7 am on christmas morning i couldn't stand it anymore so i called and was told that she had been kept in the oxygen tank all night and her breathing had stabilized and that the vet would be examing her later in the day. around 5 christmas evening, i finally spoke with the vet, a delightfully helpful woman named briana harbaugh, who told me they were all surprised to discover that the little girl (she had to put me on hold to go check on the kitty's gender because they'd been too busy before to even check!)was perfectly fine, with just a few bumps and bruises and a relatively minor issue with her right eye caused by the head trauma. not even any broken ribs! i discussed my desire to adopt the kitty, and the vet and i agreed that i would pay for them to keep her another night and for three medicines she would need. the next day i bought a new purple collar and another cat carrier, told the boys they would be getting a little sister and went off to pick up Holly, which was the name i'd decided on for our christmas miracle kitty. the vet tech packed her up for me and showed me how to administer the three medicines and sent me away without charging me a single cent, instead thanking me for rescuing and adopting her. today the boys and i and their new little sister drove back to houston. we're keeping holly in a separate kennel until her eye issue is cleared up and i can take her in to our regular vet for a full well-kitty checkup and vaccinations and schedule an appointment to get her spayed. so far, the boys have sniffed around her kennel and her, and bat has hissed at her a few times, but i think it will all be fine. our holly is a beautiful little (only six pounds!) brown tabby cat. here are a few pictures of her in her temporary kennel. she's intermittently spending time in and out of the litter box, but she's acting less afraid everytime i give her more medicine. the vet said she hadn't eaten or drank anything or used the litter box during the 48 hours she was there. i was very pleased to note that last night, her first night with us, she ate, drank and used the litter box!