“Meet Me Monday:” Chewey’s Story

I am pleased to introduce you to Chewey (Chewbacca), the lovely, longtime cat companion of twitter pal, Carrie (@cat_phenom). Chewey’s mommy, Carrie, was nice enough to share their story. Actually, Carrie wrote the majority of it. I think you will enjoy reading about how they saved each other and their love story.

Chewey is a 16 year old, female, black and white, domestic short hair (DSH) feline. Chewey lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her humans: two children, mommy, and daddy, and lots of fursiblings: cat brothers Fuzzy (age 1, DLH) and Salem (age 2, DSH), puppy brother, Buddy (age 6 months, black lab) who she does not like at all, and eight hamsters. Carrie says Chewey likes her mommy, getting biscuits, eating wet food, sunbathing, looking at birds, playing with toys, and catnip. Chewey dislikes furbrothers Fuzzy, Salem, and Buddy, and everyone else, except her mommy. Sounds to me that Carrie is definitely Chewey’s person.

 

Chewey was found at an animal shelter at six weeks of age with several other kittens after being in a foster home. Chewey was not the original cat that Carrie had planned on adopting. Sadly, the original kitty was sick and unadoptable, but this ended up being fortuitous for another kitty. Since Carrie was already approved as an adopter, she had the pick of any of the other adoptable cats at the shelter. Carrie says Chewey “was perfect right from the start.”

 

Carrie tells us how she came to choose the kitten that would become her Chewey, “I saw Chewey jumping around in a cage – she was very fuzzy, had 3 little black dots on her nose (that have since fused into one dot), and was full of spunk. I knew she’d be perfect.”

Carries continues to tell us what was so special about her first interaction with Chewey, “The first time I held Chewey (Chewbacca), she looked up at me with her cute little kitten face and bit me right in between my nostrils. If you’ve ever been bitten by sharp kitten teeth right there, you’ll know how painful that is. I liked her independent kitten sassiness. She’s proven to be the alpha cat/animal in our house.” Ouchies on the kitten bite!

 

I asked Carrie if there was anything else she wanted to share about Chewey and she shared the following.

Sadly, Chewey was diagnosed with kidney disease in November 2012. She’s lived a long, very healthy life. She’s been my best friend through a lot of difficult times. One night she became very ill. She wasn’t walking, was groaning and dragging herself when she walked, and parked herself in her litter box and wouldn’t get out. I took her to the vet to find out her body temp was only 90 degrees. The vet didn’t think she was going to make it. I was heartbroken. I couldn’t stop crying. She was my best friend. I knew she was older and that this day would come one day, but I wasn’t ready. 

The vet kept her to give her IV fluids, and wrapped her in a warming blanket to elevate her body temp. He was very honest & said it wasn’t looking good, but said that he’d call me in a few hours. Long story short, she made a miraculous recovery! I give her IV fluids as needed, she’s on a special kidney diet of wet food, which she loves, and while she’s still frail and boney, she has even started jumping back up in bed with me.  

I don’t know how much longer we’ll have together, and it will still break my heart when she goes to the rainbow bridge, but I’m enjoying each moment I can with her. She’s more than just a pet or a cat… she senses things, she’s comforting, and she’s brought a great deal of joy to our lives.

My mamma went through this with one of her cats, Smuffy, the first cat I ever lived with and loved, so we can appreciate what Carrie is going through with Chewey. Many thanks to Carrie for sharing Chewey’s story and being a feature “Meet Me Monday” on my blog. Please leave a comment for Carrie and or Chewey below. If you would like to share your story, please email me at abbydawgblog@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.