Ka'imi Sailing and Cruising Adventures: December 2016

Last May Mike and I were on our walk to San Felipe and found a kitten on the side of the road. It could barely move! It looked like her back legs were paralyzed. Mike asked the occupants of the house if we could take her to a doctor and they gladly gave her to us. She had a tick in her eye, covered with fleas and very skinny. We took her to the vet in town immediately. He took the tick out of her eye, gave us flea soap and Vitamin B-12, telling us she was malnourished, anemic and we found she didn't have use of her legs. We thought that she had been stepped on, but found out later that it was probably a birth defect that effects her right leg. She can use her left leg but she mostly sits down and shuffles when she runs.

Mike and I took her to Guatemala City to see Dr. Andrade and an orthopedic specialist. Dr. Andrade is a vet from Guatemala City that comes to the Rio Dulce once a month and cares for his animal patients on their boats. They x-rayed her, found no broken bones and thought that is was nerve damage caused either by being too tight in the womb or during the birth. They didn't think there was anything they could do, but told us to keep working her legs and see if they got stronger. We have been working her legs, but she still can't use them. She is however, very healthy and very happy! So Zoey, as we named her, is now the Ka'imi cat!

This is the house where we found Zoey. There is a family who lives here and we see them every morning on our walks. They are always working, we see them collecting fire wood and taking it to San Felipe to sell. Mike sometimes help the eldest man, Juan, with his wheelbarrow full of wood up the hills.

This is Zoey after her flea bath and a little bit of food. She had no energy, she layed there and breathed. You can see the scabs on her legs from dragging them over the rocks and dirt.

Zoey's first bed.

Zoey getting healthier.

The owner of the Tortugal Marina, Daphne, donated a old carpet to us so that Zoey had better traction to use her legs. We had it cleaned and covered our whole salon with carpet. It helped Zoey to use her good leg.

One day we felt a bump on Zoey's belly where the umbilical cord would of been so we took her to the town vet. He thought it was an umbilical hernia and scheduled her for surgery. The next morning we were checking it and found a slim stick coming out of a sore about an inch. Poor Zoey she never complained or cried! We cancelled the surgery.

We think that when she was small she dragged herself around on the dirt and this stick got lodged in her. When we first got her, we would feel it and thought it was a floating rib or something. I guess her body was tired of it and got rid of it! The Dr. put her on antibiotics and it healed quickly.

The stick we pulled out was 2.5 inches long.

Zoey had a reaction to the antibiotics, her message says it all!!

Finally, our little girl feeling much better! She is able to get on the settees all by herself. We made a ramp so she can get on our bed, it is very high up. She loves to look out the back window.

This is Dr. Andrade and his assistant giving her the vaccine shots and rabies shot. She had two more vaccine shots now she is ready to travel the world!