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Freya and I have moved again. This time to a house that I bought, so no more moves for a while. Yay.

So, knowing we will be here for a while, I got my brother to make a bespoke window seat for her.

Design brief was low wide steps covered with carpet leading to a lounging platform at window height for her to loll in the sun. Upper platform based around her favourite pillow (with sides to stop the pillow sliding off)

The finished product, with model, below. The cat grass is optional of course. As are the toy dinosaurs LOL.

As an older (16 years) rear tripawd Freya needs fabric under her front claws to make her feel secure, as she can only do a short hop up. The width of the step is to let her pause and rest if she needs to (thinking further ahead to decreasing mobility).

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Hi all

So, it is nearly 7 and a half years since the amputation, and Freya is now 16 years old.  And still going strong.

As per my last post, we moved house in January 2019 and we are about to embark on another journey to a new house. However, this is one I have bought, so it should be a pretty long term move.

Since the last post she and I have been through bushfires and we evacuated in late December 2019 to a ‘safer’ part of the Blue Mountains. For those watching the bushfire situation unfold from overseas, I live in the upper Blue Mountains in NSW and my village did come under direct fire attack, but no houses were lost – however 10 minutes up the road there were houses lost. The smoke, the ash and the oppressive swelter was overwhelming. And the loss of vegetation and wildlife was horrendous. I can’t think too much about it because it is still emotionally devastating. My village, like all Blue Mountains towns and villages, is located within a World Heritage Area and over 80% of that bushland was burnt.

We then got storms and flash flooding that saw the single train line over the Blue Mountains washed away in one part.  In February 2020 it was quite ‘funny’ in that the train line was closed from Katoomba to Lithgow because of fire damage and from Katoomba to Springwood (the other direction) because of flash flooding.

And now, Covid -19. The plus side for me is spending time at home with Freya. The downside will be going to back to work and leaving her little furry face looking disappointed.

Freya is still Queen of her domain, although she is getting less able to get up without assistance. I just bought some pet stairs to try out, but the depth of the step is not good for her and she needs a wider landing than the normal steps. Lesson learnt there.

In the new house I will get someone to build a specific set of stairs and a seat for her to get up to and lounge in the sun (the new house is very sunny).

Anyway, a little update from Freya and myself.

Keep hopping.

Hi allSo Freya turned 15 this month. And six of those with three legs. So she is an expert.

She is definitely on top of the world, or at least on top of her cat tree.

I thought I would share the latest arrangement of her cat tree and supporting tree furniture.

She still likes to get high – she is a cat. So to assist her as a rear leg amputee, I have a series of small fabric topped boxes and platforms for her. She needs to feel fabric under her claws to give her confidence.

Whenever we move, as we did three months ago, there is a period of intense negotiation with the cat tree set up. I will arrange a configuration and she will either approve or let me know I need to do better. A front paw will test the distance and fabric and if suitable she will hop up. If not suitable she will bring her paw down and look at you and that is your cue to try a different arrangement of heights.

This can take many days

But the takeaway message here is that she knows her limits. It took a little while in the beginning but she has a level of confidence and she adjusts that as she gets older.  Just last month she decided that she now needs a box to get up to the bed and couch. And so a box at both those places there now is.

They let you know. And we adjust.

She was an older tripod to begin with and it is entirely possible that a younger rear tripod might not need as much support or structure, but this is what works with Freya.

Happy hopping.

Michelle and Freya

 

So another year has passed and Freya is here to let you know that life is still good.  Her leg was removed (cancer) back in December 2012 and it remains the right and best decision.

For those who are starting, or contemplating, a three-legged journey please read as much as possible on this site.

The moderators are brilliant and it was reading about Fang and Jill and other cats on their journey’s that helped me make my decision and gave me solace as I wrestled with what is one of the hardest decisions a fur parent can face.

It was tough at times. And second guessing is part of the journey. But reading about cats and dogs who survived and in many cases flourished helped.

And so every year I drop by to let any reading this blog know that Freya is well. She hops. She definitely eats and even more definitely sleeps.

Freya is going to turn 15 this year and 6 of those have been on three legs. Happy years. Years together that otherwise would not have been.

Well here is Freya, doing what she does best, sleeping.

It is coming up to 6 years post-op for this little feline and life is fine.

She is enjoying her new heated bed on the couch below as it is quite cold here at the moment (Blue Mountains in Australia it is still winter)

Other than that she is happy and healthy and each day she hops around, demands her food and her snuggles and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Wishing all the best to other tripawd parents

(Picture looks fine on my mobile so apologies if it goes mad)

So there were requests for some photos and after some resizing issues, here are some photos from the last three days

 

Reminder that this is the cat tree and she gets up there by jumping on the first cat tree platform of the blue cat tree, then onto the half pipe of the cream cat chair (old bar stool) on the left and them up to the top part of the cream chair and then on to the blue platform above the blue pipe – it takes four stages but the results are lounging in the sun

 

She certainly attacks the pole with great gusto on a regular basis.

I took this photo of Freya at the top of her northern viewing post tonight.  As you can see, a collection of boxes (and yes, that is a skull mask – it’s one of my halloween decoration boxes) and a cat scratching post that helps her get up to look out. It’s night here now so her view is of the dark, and the potentially scary, backyard.

And this is her eastern viewing post (her cat tree) with assistance up the various levels ably provided by her very first piece of cat furniture – a modified bar stool (it’s almost as old as she is).

She jumps up to the bottom platform of the cat tree then up to the right support of the cat stool and then up to the top bar of the cat stool, she then jumps from that to the top platform (the large one, not the upper smaller one), where she lounges in the morning sun for ages on end.

Hope that gives some idea of how Freya gets around and enjoys her views.

Michelle and Freya

 

 

It has been such a journey since mid November 2012 when I first found Freya had a large suspicious lump on her left rear hock. It was as if I entered a dark tunnel that compressed my world and it was all I could do to make it from day to day. Then the operation and the recovery and then life seemed to become … normal again.

Freya is now a fully functioning Tripawd, although sometimes I walk behind her down the stairs (our morning routine as she knows there is food at the bottom and races me down) I see her different gait and the little hop she gives at the end of the stairs and I feel sad.

However, and I stress this, Freya is not sad. She might not be able to jump onto the kitchen counter anymore, or jump up on top of the toilet pedestal (both previous favourite places to go) but she can still get on the bed, the couch, and we have engineered a chair to help her onto her very own cat chair.  So, things are good.

Thanks to all who helped on the way and made the journey feel a shared one!

And for those about to embark on that journey through the dark tunnel – there is light at the end.

Our animal companions are strong, they are resilient and they can show us a thing or two about recovery and moving forward.

I’ll take a picture of Freya ten weeks after amputation and post it in the next day or two.

Thanks

Michelle and Freya

It really doesn’t seem like a fortnight since Freya had her leg amputated – but it certainly has been, and two days extra even.

It has been going so well that I even had a night away on New Years Eve, although I was a bit anxious I must admit. I left Freya in the loungeroom with blocked off access, and set her up with lots of water, food, cat grass, litter trays, etc. When I got home I saw she had pushed the door to the loungeroom so hard that the folded stairs I had against it to keep it closed had fallen over. So she definitely wanted to be out of the room at some point. She was a bit miffed at me, but got all sweet again when I opened a can of food.

And then later that afternoon on New Years Day I removed the barrier to the stairs!

Now, I have been quite worried about the stairs as they are steep. So, I made sure the stairs were obstacle free (removed the candles and flowers that I have at various points along the stairs) and made sure there were assists for her to get on the bed (boxes and such) and sat back.

And waited ……..

And waited ………………..

And waited ……………………………..

Righto. Anti-climax. All psyched up and the cat couldn’t care less – she can be such a feline. Actually, I don’t know if it is a feline versus canine thing but I suspect so.

So after a while I head upstairs to bed (bearing in mind that it would be my first night back upstairs too, as I have been downstairs with Freya all this time – the sacrifices we make) and rationalise that if she hasn’t made her way up before I finished reading then I’ll put the barrier back up so I don’t have to worry. I’m nearly at the end of my reading when I hear the heavier pawfalls I’m having to get used to, and they seemed quite close. And there she was, in the room looking as nonchalant as could be.

The next thing was to see if she could make the jump to the bed. She didn’t seem keen initially and curled up on the floor, but not long after the lights went out I heard her moving and she went to the side of the bed and I looked over and saw her size up the distance, stretch up, dig her claws in and pull/jump up. Well, I was pleased as anything, she came over to me and settled herself down to sleep. She slept all night on the bed, which is what she normally does and which I have been missing. And the following morning as I went downstairs she came barrelling after me at some speed – which is not unexpected as her front legs are fine and they are what give balance heading down – plus food is downstairs! She also took the time to rub against me on the way down, a familiar ritual of ours!

I also got her a new box today (she loves to lie in a cardboard box filled with crinkly paper) as the one she used to use had high sides and she got into it once after the amputation but then got stuck and hasn’t tried again, even though I lowered one of the sides. So, I saw an excellent low sided cardboard candidate out shopping today and brought it home, filled it with paper and it was a success. Feeling pretty pleased. Substitution is not a crime if it makes our newly three-legged doggies/kitties happy!!

Also, I noticed one of her toys (a mouse attached to a short pole) was moved from upstairs to downstairs. This is something she did all the time – I’d leave it one place in the morning and when I got home from work it was somewhere completely different. She hasn’t done that since the operation and today it was moved, and again when I got back from dinner out, it was somewhere different again!! It’s the little things that can make such a difference.

In terms of assistance to get up to things, Freya seems to not want to use them at all. She is comfortable stretching up, sticking her claws in and then pulling/partial jumping to get onto the couch and the bed but that is it. Anything higher she isn’t really trying at the moment and she ignores any assists I leave her (boxes next to chairs, etc) but I’ll keep an eye on that.

Please note that I’ll probably post less frequently now as Freya continues to improve, but I will return to make my observations, never fear!

Well, ten days after amputation.

I had a little scare this afternoon when I looked at Freya’s incision and there was a thin piece of what looked like dental floss sticking out from the middle of the incision by about a centimetre. Eek. It looked dried and not covered with any gunky stuff, but it was definitely there. OK – one hasty repair to an e-collar later and I put it on her and the sulks began (hiding behind the couch).

I then called the Vet on call as it was Sunday afternoon (not our usual vet but his associate) and after a bit of discussion it became clear that it was not an internal suture as she said they would be purple, but rather one closer to the skin that are used to keep the upper layers of the skin together – the fatty layers. She also felt it was not a matter for concern if the skin layers were still joined together – which they were (you can check out a photo from today below). So we agreed that the length of suture sticking out should be removed to avoid temptation and that the collar could go on when I’m not around to keep an eye on her.  If after observation I felt a trip to the vet’s was required we could do that in the morning. So, that made me feel a bit better.

I then went back to talk to my sulky cat and what do you know? The suture string appeared to have snapped off as it wasn’t there any more. I think maybe in the slight chase to get the cone back (and wasn’t that a golden moment in my life, lunging after a three legged cat with plastic cone in hand!) on there may have been enough movement to snap it off. No sign it was ever there really. I had said it looked really dry, not even like (now that I think about it) that it had even been licked by a cat recently.

Anyway, I examined the incision in a lot of detail as you could imagine and saw that the top part and the bottom part are healing really really well. The middle part is not yet covered by hair and has some little … bulges? … not yet healed over. I could see a little bit of what could be a suture stitch at the surface inside one of the bulges but it looks well settled in there. So given all that, the cone of shame came off and Freya forgave me ….. after some biscuits.

Then I thought, hey it’s Day 10 and I really enjoyed the comparison shot that was done of Fang at Day 3 and Day 10 (and again later comparing Day 10 to Day 21) so here goes, my comparison shot of Freya’s incision between Day 2 and Day 10, albeit not side by side but you should still get an idea.