Written by Margie Joubert
Professional photography by Cat Schramm Photography
For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted a Maine Coon cat. After longing for one for 46 years, Ben entered my life. The most beautiful mackerel tabby Maine Coon.
Always wanting to know where my animals came from, I looked up his cat father and mother and I fell in love with his father, Just Joshua.
Not long after falling in love with a photo of Joshua, he was done with his stud duties and I had the opportunity to adopt him.
After being with us for three years and only ever being an indoor cat with a catio, I noticed something nobody else could see. For the two-and-a-half years that Joshua had owned us, he’d always been very, very shy. We were slowly gaining his trust. He started sleeping on the bed, purring away. Then, I noticed something: to me it looked like he was hesitant for a split second to jump onto anything. Thinking it was my imagination, we in any case decided to take him to a veterinarian for a general check-up.
Not finding anything wrong with him, I was persistent: something wasn’t right. The veterinarian decided to do full x-rays to set my mind at ease. We left Joshua at the clinic, and what felt like a lifetime was only six hours later that we fetched him.
A devastating discovery
Walking into the clinic and seeing the vet’s face, my heart just went ice cold and it felt like it broke into millions of pieces.
He invited us into his office, saying he unfortunately didn’t have any good news. He showed us the x-rays, asking if Joshua had ever been hit by a car or had any type of accident. Knowing he’d only ever been in a cattery or a house, we knew that it was impossible. Until today, the mystery remains as to what happened to him.
Joshua was diagnosed with discospondylitis, osteoarthritis, and three spots on his spine had fused, and he has dehydration of the spine. That was the worst news I’d ever received and I still remember the day as a bad dream. That was the beginning of May 2024.
We left the practice with Joshua in the carrier. My husband drove with a look of despair on his face and tears just kept continually falling down my face. Joshua had become my second Heart Cat, my Soul Cat, and I just couldn’t accept his fate.
A mix-up gives hope
Three days later, he was back at the practice for full blood tests. It was an absolute miracle that his liver and kidney function tests came back pretty normal. To me that was a sign – a sign that we could fight this.
Joshua was given a course of medicine and a few injections and homeward we went. Joshua slept, slept and slept more. I knew this wasn’t normal. He stopped grooming himself and went off his food, and after a week he’d lost 500g.
We decided to take him to a clinic that could perform physiotherapy on him. On arrival, there was a complete mix-up and Joshua was taken in for an assessment. We thought that this was normal and that it had to happen before the physio session. This indeed was a mix-up that saved Joshua’s life. The veterinarian apologised profusely as he’d examined the wrong cat! That mistake is what saved my cat’s life!
The veterinarian asked if we could come back the next day and another set of x-rays, scans and blood tests were undertaken.
It wasn’t good news
Again, his facial expression told me that this wasn’t good news and he confirmed what the previous veterinarian had diagnosed. I stood crying and crying – I don’t think I’ve ever cried as much as that day. I asked him to please save my cat’s life. He told us that this would likely be impossible, but we had to throw evening we had at Joshua.
Joshua went for physio each and every week for six weeks. More medication; red light treatments; more painful injections; exercises to increase his blood flow; lots of TLC and lots of sweeties. Anything and everything we could do for him.
He started to look better, picked up 200g, and in general he looked like a happy cat.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be. Two weeks later, our ladies at the vet’s office phoned us to come back to the office immediately. Because the cattery is joined to the office, they can see all the cats throughout the day. Joshua had gone into the cattery dragging his hind end, falling all over the place.
We rushed him back to the vet immediately, my husband most likely breaking all speed limits.
More x-rays were done. At 7pm our veterinarian told us that this was unfortunately the time to make the call.
I sobbed and sobbed, I begged and begged; I felt every possible emotion go through my body. My husband held me and said, “Do what you think is the right thing, I will support you.”
I turned around and faced the vet with every ounce of my being. Beseechingly, I declared to him that this could not be it – I’d sell my soul to save my child.
He wanted to fight
He looked at me with tears running down his cheeks and said he only had ‘one bullet left in the gun’. I froze – this couldn’t be it. He gave a soft laugh, seeing the despair and fear on my face, and said, “I mean this is the absolute last thing we can try.” He said that he’d seen so many owners give up and that he’d try his best to help our child. He told us that we needed to understand that this was it. If this didn’t work, there were no other options.
Joshua was injected with lots of pain and nerve medicine. He was put on a drug that was originally developed for epilepsy but was found to help with nerve pain and nerve issues.
We went home watching our child not able to walk, dragging his body behind him. We saw the fear in his eyes and I broke down. Had I done the right thing? Should I not have let him cross the rainbow bridge?
Joshua lay on his blanket and put his head on my hand, purring. The look he gave me was, “Mommy, I want to fight this.” And we did.
We started him on the new medication twice a day, added CBD oil at night, and he has Pentosan injections every second week and has started with acupuncture weekly.
More and more he began to move around, and within two weeks he could walk normally again.
He now runs in and out of the cattery, plays with the other six cats and purrs non-stop!
This was, and is, the most incredible journey I’ve ever been on. There were times when I questioned myself. There are times when I wonder what would have happened to my child had he gone to another home.
What I’ve discovered is that we’re all stronger than what we believe we are. That there’s always a way. That we should never just give up. But most important is to trust your gut and be patient.
We’re six months down the line and we have a very happy cat in the house. Dotsure has been amazing in Joshua’s journey and have literally saved us financially. Without them we’d never have been able to afford everything.
The universe had our back and it led us to the most amazing team of veterinarians.
Dr Arpana Bhagwan has been the most important part of Joshua’s journey and I’ll be indebted to her for life.
My message to any pet owner: never, ever, ever give up!
