Rest Peacefully, Sweet Lucky.

Lucky passed away yesterday. 

Here's Luckys story.

He turned up at NYCACC in May, completely soaked in oil. Lisa, of North Brooklyn Cats, rescued him. She said he smelled like a car service station, like a mechanic's shop. 

He was only 10 days old, his eyes had just opened, and his name was Lucky. 

He had multiple baths to remove the oil. His ears were so full, that the Q-tips Lisa used to clean them came out completely black.  He seemed healthy and showed no signs of illness. He just needed more baths.

Lucky was too young to eat on his own. Lisa is an expert bottle feeder, but he refused to latch on and suckle. She fed him drop by drop to fill his belly. 

Lisa realized he was blind, and thought she had seen him have a possible seizure. She took him to the vet, who confirmed he was blind and said to keep an eye on him for more seizures. At that point, it was wait and see. 

Lucky was adorable. He charmed everyone at Muddy Paws, and he had mastered hide and seek at an early age. 

Soon he was running, pouncing and having a blast!

Yah, he was blind, so?

Around this time, Raptor was ready for a friend, and Lucky was ready to start learning how to navigate a bigger environment. He was going to have his own home just like all the other lucky ones. So he came to Big City Little Kitty for some training. 

He started out in the bathroom. Learning how to map out the area, find the litter box and play like crazy! His teddy bear was always right there for him.

He and Raptor became friends, and partners in crime, right away.

He learned to wrestle.

And when Raptor was a little too rough for him, he came running to me for some mama time. 

He got big and strong very fast and could go round and round with Raptor. They were very happy to have each other.

Lucky was amazing. He was navigating the apartment, running from room to room a warp speed, and living the good life! And man, did he love a good belly rub!

He snuggled up tight with his teddy bear at night.

And snuggled in the big bed with mama in the morning.

Then one night I came home and realized he may have had a seizure. Then a couple of nights later, I saw him have a seizure. It was very scary, and intense. He came out of the seizures fast and was walking and eating within minutes. I called Lisa and she came right away to take him for an emergency visit to the vet.

They noticed he had some ear troubles and we all hoped that some medication to reduce the swelling and infection in his ear would end the seizures, and it did for a while. 

He was back to his kooky self: 

sloppy eating, 

kitty yoga,

kickin' it at cat nip parties,

and being REALLY cute!

He was accepted into the Neighborhood Cat Watch, Queens Division, for his stellar listening skills.

And he had a new friend, Spin.

We were one, big, happy foster family.

We took care of him when he had a boo boo,

And snuggled him at every opportunity.

Yesterday, I woke up and went in to the kitchen and found that Lucky had a seizure, a bad one. He was not recovering from this one. I wrapped him up tight and stayed close. I phoned Lisa and she worked on getting him another emergency appointment.

While I was in the shower, Spin kept watch, cuz that's what brothers do.

By the time he reached the vet, he was in very bad shape. His lungs were full of fluid and his stomach and intestines had thickened. They though it was FIP at first, but [UPDATE from North Brooklyn Cats (more at the bottom of the post) "an autopsy revealed that he most likely died of brain damage inflicted by a botfly egg that entered his body through the nose. The developing larvae built a sort of cocoon in his brain that caused damage that resulted in his blindness, seizures, and ultimately his death."] He had a short life, but he had a blast. He had fun ALL the time and he had plenty of love. Thank you, North Brooklyn Cats, for rescuing him and giving him a chance.

Rest peacefully, sweet boy.

 xoxoxo,

Big City Little Kitty

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10/26 Update from North Brooklyn Cats:
Necropsy results.

"Here's an update for Lucky fans. Warning, it's rather awful. An autopsy revealed that he most likely died of brain damage inflicted by a botfly egg that entered his body through the nose. The developing larvae built a sort of cocoon in his brain that caused damage that resulted in his blindness, seizures, and ultimately death. There is no way we could have prevented this, and no practical way of discovering that it was there. And even if we had, there probably was nothing to be done. He had the best short life he could under the circumstances. Thought you might like to know."