Sumo's song...

It was almost 5 PM and as I hurried through the parking lot of Eastside Mudville Middle School... the early November chill was settling in under the deepening dusk as I took the usual "short cut" through the neighborhood and came upon one of my students, an erswhile flautist, who flagged me down. As I lowered the window, she pointed to another girl who was standing over by the side of the road, poking at something with her foot. "There's a kitten and it's not moving"' she said, obviously upset. My students all knew me as the "cat lady" who took in the strays there always seemed to be at EMMS, so she was pretty sure I'ld help "the poor kitty". I went over to the other girl and looking down, picked up a very small, long haired black kitten who was limp in my hands. The kitten was burning up with fever and upon closer inspection I saw why... there was large abcess on it's side, probably from a bite... as I held him, he opened his eyes, looked at me and mouthed a silent "meow",then closed his eyes and dropped his head... The cold wind nudged me as I told my student that I would take him to my vet. I didn't tell her that I was thinking that he was probably going to be put to sleep, as he was very weak, sick and young, but I couldn't leave such a sick kitten to die on a cold street...On the way to my vets', I held the little guy on my chest and talked to him. He seemed totally content to be in soft, warm hands and by the time I arrived at the vets', the abcess had broken open and had begun to drain. My vet.,Dr.Kindhands, was about to close, but he had no problem helping me. As he held the little guy, probing the oozing abcess, the kitten opened his eyes and this time, managed a weak, but audible, meow...Dr.K looked at me and said,"the draining is a good sign...Let's give him some antibiotics, fluids and food,[he was very thin...], and see how he does overnight...he probably won't make it, but I'ld like to give him a chance". I agreed and went home. Daily, for 2 weeks, I'ld call or drop by to see how he [I now knew it was a little boy cat...] was..I learned that he was only about 4 weeks old when I found him, so he had to be bottle-fed for the first 2 weeks. Dr.K put a drain in his abcess, which had to be cleaned and medicated daily...he also got antibiotics and at first he got IV fluids too. Dr.K told me after about 2 weeks that every morning when he came in and passed the cage, he fully expected the kitty to be dead...but, against all odds, every morning, the little guy would open his eyes and meow, then go back to sleep, after he began to get stronger, he would reach through the cage to make contact...... It was about at the 2 or 3 week point that Dr.K, upon closer examination while removing the drain, discovered that the little guy also had a bad case of an infectious skin disease that required isolation from other furry beasts. As daily medicated baths, with scab debreeding was the only treatment, much like that a horribly burned person endures as they heal...Dr.K and his assistant were both amazed at the little guys' unfailing good nature in the face of all this daily pain...most cats are not patient with a bath, especially one followed by scab picking and repeated daily, for weeks... but the little guy was loving and cooperative in the face of all of it, and in January, I was able to hold him for the first time since that November day I rescued him. He was a classic Persian, with the flat face, big yellow-green eyes and very long charcoal hair. If you brushed the fur backwards, the underside was cream... but what struck me was his short legs and very plump tummy...I said to him,"Hey, little guy, that's quite a tummy you have ! You look like a Sumo wrestler !"...and he had a name. He was supposed to be completely non-contageous and would have his final baths in the next few days, being able to come home with me soon, but by the next afternoon, I had a couple of red, itchy spots on my hand . Something was wrong. On my way home, I stopped in at the vets... Dr.K said that he bet he knew what it was and his black light confirmed it, Sumo had ringworm and had given it to me... Dr.K told me what to get at the drugstore to heal my problem and set about treating Sumo. Finally, in February 1989, after he had spent almost 4 months of his 4+ months of life at the vets, I brought Sumo home. Before I left the vets with Sumo, I told Dr.K that I was afraid to see my bill, not just because Sumo had been there for so long, but also because of all the "hands-on" treatment he had been given...Dr.K shook his head, smiled and said that he had been afraid to see the total too, which turned out to be in excess of $2600.00[today, it would probably be more like $4000.00], but he said if I could handle $600.00, to cover the cost of medicine, he and his assistant would be glad to donate their services, as they had come to love the sweet little cat who wouldn't give up. A deal was struck and I often referred to him as my "$6,000,000.00 cat".
Once I got him home, everything just seemed to be normal with him there. He was small, but blended right in due to his "live and let live" attitude. Even Big Joey, alpha cat and leader of the "clone kitties"[his 3 littermates I had taken from the Pound wagon], liked him. I've seen him move through hostile territory eliciting nary a growl or hiss from some really hard to get along with kitties....even after spending years being separated from the larger group in the house,[I had a few older kitties who lived in the back yard, coming into my bedroom at night, because they didn't "play well with the others" Sumo had joined them because he enjoyed the freedom of being outside and he always came in when I called] Sumo could walk among the kitties who didn't know him at all, and be unmolested. Sumo's best attribute, as far as I was concerned, was his ability to "hug"...he would come bouncing up to me, meowing, and when I picked him up, he would manage to make me feel embraced... he would make beds,[kneading with his big, strong paws but keeping his claws under wraps, in deference to my human frailty] close his eyes, drool, and rub my chin with his forehead,,,all the while, purring lustily...he would love on me for a while and then, with a quick little movement, give me a little kitty kiss on my chin or nose, if he could reach it, then bounce off to prowl his yard, stalk prey or just sleep in the garden. Sumo left me in July 2006...he had been getting weaker and had issues of aging as do we all...the nasty heat storm was too much for him and Dr. Softheart, [Dr.K's friend who became my vet when Dr. K left us in 1998] put him to sleep as I held him and he held me...I feel blessed every time I think of him and how brutish and short his life almost was... how glad I am that I was there when he needed someone. When I am asked why I have had so many kitties over the years and still have a "small mob" even today, I often say, quite truthfully, that each of them would have been long dead, often under really bad circumstances, had I not stopped and picked them up, taking them in and being "theirs"...I did that for Sumo then and I'ld do it again tomorrow for the next one...