Shirley said:

"OMG. You won't believe what happened to me. I almost died. Well, it's a longer story than that but it's got a good ending. Anyway ... I was left at a shelter. It was scary there and I hissed at some person who put me in this super tiny cage. What was I to do? I couldn't breathe when I got scared and I panicked. I couldn't explain my problem. So, this shelter decided I was undesirable and unadoptable and asked Purebreds Plus if they'd take me. I am so glad they did.

A nice lady named Nancy drove 300 miles to get me and take me to my new foster home. She told me I was a nice, good little kitty and that my funny ears were beautiful. Appreciated at last!!. At my foster home I got lots of love and attention but I kept hearing the humans whispering about how I was too thin, and what was wrong with me. They took me to see a guy named Jeff Schmidt. He's a cat doctor and he's really cute and nice. I don't remember much after looking into Dr. Schmidts beautiful blue eyes so my foster human will have to tell the rest of my story."

Her first foster mom says:

As you might have guessed from Shirley's story there was something really wrong with her. She was too thin, oddly thin. When we took her out of her carrier for her vet exam she started having very labored breathing. She had to be mildly sedated to protect her in order for Dr. Schmidt to do any exam at all. His initial prognosis wasn't good. Under sedation she was still labored in her breathing which meant something in her chest cavity was constricting her ability to breathe. Upon physical examination he found her chest cavity was hard and not compressible. Dr Schmidt gave us three scenarios for what might be wrong. None of them were good, and only one gave her any chance for survival. The first two choices were hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart) or possibly a large chest tumor. If it were either one of these we would have had to euthanize Shirley mainly because the hardness indicated a very advanced condition. Our third choice wasn't much better. A diaphragmatic hernia. That meant the thin piece of tissue between her tummy and her chest was torn or not even there. When that happens some of the internal organs that are in the abdomen move up into the chest cavity where the lungs and heart are supposed to be. The compressed lungs and heart can't expand and contract so the kitty is unable to breathe effectively.

Dr. Schmidt is a good vet and a very compassionate man. He is also realistic and understands that the funds in Rescue are very limited. In his gentle way he explained the situation and told us what the costs might be to go forward even just to diagnose the condition. He would have completely understood if we decided to have Shirley euthanized at that time. We decided that we owed it to this wonderful cat to at least be sure of her diagnosis so we paid to have a lateral chest Xray taken. Lo and behold, it turned out to be #3, the diaphgramatic hernia! Who knew we'd ever be rejoicing for a such a terrible diagnosis.

Shirley's chest Xray was amazing. Usually when you look at a Xray you can expect to see the heart and lungs. In Shirley's case all of her internal organs were now in her chest cavity and completely blocked our view of the heart. We could see her large intestine, small intestine and not much else.

Now we had a tough decision to make. One of our members had this surgery done on her cat and it was around $1600 not including diagnostics. Could we afford this? Then we asked each other the other big question: Would she live long enough for us to find the right surgeon and get her onto the surgery schedule. That's when Dr. Schmidt piped up. He said he didn't want to pressure us and we could go to a specialty surgeon but that he had done a number of these surgeries over the years. We were surprised because many vets wouldn't even touch this complicated, risky type of surgery. He said he'd worked at an emergency clinic for years when he first started as a vet and used to do these when animals came in with injuries. I guess it was our lucky day as well as Shirley's. He said this was one of the worst cases he'd seen and he wasn't sure she would survive much longer considering the breathing problems we'd witnessed today. We had to decide immediately.After an impromptu pow wow we checked in with our Treasurer to make sure the bank balance could cover us, and decided to have the surgery.

Immediately Dr. Schmidt had all his afternoon appointments canceled to clear time to do the operation . We understood the huge risks involved and knew that Shirley had at best a 50/50 chance of surviving. We gave Dr Schmidt permission to euthanize her at any point he felt it necessary. And held our breaths. The scariest point was when they sedated her fully to intubate her. There was a risk that the weight of the organs would compress so much that she'd suffocate before they were able to intubate her ( Put the air tube down her throat).

We left after that and waited impatiently to hear. At about 3:00 pm we got the call. The surgery was totally successful! Unbelievable. Dr Schmidt was able to move all of the internal organs including kidneys, intestines, spleen pancreas and even the liver, out of her chest cavity back down into appropriate locations in her abdomen.He safely sewed up her torn diaphragm. It was a beautiful job. Then one of Dr. Schmidt's surgery staff volunteered to monitor Shirley for the first 24 hours at no charge to us. Everyone was rooting for her. We felt so lucky.

We knew we weren't out of the woods until after the first few days, but each day she did better and better. At the time of writing this bio, (February 1, 2009), she's one week past surgery and doing great. We still have her isolated in a small bathroom so that she doesn't become too active but we no longer fear for her life. She's coming out and visiting with her foster mom and seems to be very happy to get some air in those lungs for a change. She will make a complete, permanent recovery

Oh! We almost forgot to talk about the money part of it! The surgery, Xray, meds and exam cost $1,359.00. That's a LOT of money for our all volunteer rescue. We hope that a few folks out there will reach into their pockets and donate something to help cover the cost of her medical care. Without your help we cannot take on these unusual cases and save these exceptional cats.

Purebreds Plus Cat Rescue would like to thank:

The fabulous Dr. Jeff Schmidt
Arbor View Veterinary Clinic
7441 Foothills Boulevard
Suite 100
Roseville, CA 95747
(916) 789-2211
Website: http://www.mypetdoctor.com/index.html

UPDATE 02/15/08 - two weeks later and Shirley has recovered phenomenally well from her ordeal and is a brand new cat ! Her fur has thickened up already and is now growing soft and luxurious. She is extremely playful and active and very curious, its like she is finally physically able to act like a kitten! She has adjusted to the other kitties in her home but would much prefer to be the only kitty you will ever need!