The story starts with Sydney the girl. Before she was born in July of 2005, her mommy found out that she would be born with club feet. This disorder is most often treated with surgery and many times leaves the patient unable to walk normally for the rest of their life. Well, Sydney's mom was a talented gymnast and refused to settle for a life-impairing treatment. She scoured every resource she could find until she located a doctor in Iowa who treated the condition non-surgically. She met with him before Sydney was even born and worked out a treatment plan. Soon after she was born, Mommy and Sydney began regularly flying to Iowa to get casts put on Sydney legs. The casts gradually rotated her bones, and as she grew her legs and feet would correct themselves. Her treatment went on for almost three years, and in between casts, Sydney improved to where she could run and play like a girl her age should. It was a great success story, thanks to Sydney's strong spirit, her mom's determination, and her doctor's innovative treatment plan.
Everything was going according to plan until one day in June of 2008. Sydney and her mom were in Iowa getting new casts. They regularly traveled via Angel Flights, where private pilots donate their time and their planes to transport needy medical patients for treatments. They are usually small, single-engine planes. When the pilot took off in Iowa City, there was a sudden gust of wind and the pilot lost control of the small plane. They crashed shortly after take-off and sweet Sydney could not be saved.
This was obviously a crushing blow to Sydney's family and all those that knew her. She was a radiant little girl who infused happiness into everyone she met. Her family now holds an annual luau party to celebrate her life, and many friends sport memorial stickers on their cars that read "Shine On, Sydney" because she truly was a little ray of sunshine. She is greatly missed and lovingly remembered by all.
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| 2-year-old Sydney |
This is where we transition from the story of Sydney the girl to Sydney the cat.
I first got Sydney when I was spending a summer semester of college away from home. I missed my own pets and decided I would foster some kittens. It seemed like the perfect compromise; I needed someone to keep me company and they needed a temporary home. I went to the shelter and picked out a perfect-looking litter of 3 baby kittens. We believe they were around 3 weeks old. There was an orange boy and twin tortoiseshell girls. I took them home, got them settled in, bathed them, and named them Solaris, Scion, and Sydney. We had just lost Sydney the girl a week or two before I got the kittens, and I thought it would be nice to name one of them Sydney in her memory.
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| Sydney, Solaris, and Scion |
The kittens and I had a great time together for a few weeks, but then Solaris started to get sick. It all began with the sneezing, which, if you've ever worked around a shelter, you know is a bad sign. To spare you all the awful details, poor Solaris went from bad to worse and I ultimately lost him during the night which I now view as one of the most traumatic of my life.
Now please don't think me a neglectful kitty mother; I consulted the shelter vet as soon as he started sneezing. They said that if he had not been fostered, they would have had to put him down after the first sneeze. They just can't risk spreading infection in such close quarters. They advised me of how to care my best for him, but their hopes weren't high for a recovery.
Within a week of Solaris' death the girls started showing signs of the same sickness. I just could not bear to lose another one, so I reached out to my boss at the time, who was very involved at her veterinarian's office. She begged them to care for my sick kitties pro bono. They immediately took them in. I was given a bleak prognosis, but they said they would do everything they could. The girls were hooked up to IVs to receive nutrients and fluids because they would not eat. They were kept in a heated, humidified incubator to ease their breathing and had miniature oxygen masks affixed to their faces. They were also given injections of strong antibiotics to help fight whatever infection they had and to support their weak immune systems. Dr. Perez of Aloha Pet Hospital tended them faithfully for days and days. Every day I would call for an update, and every day I would be told, "They're alive, but I don't think they'll make it through the night." But they kept fighting. One showed minor signs of improvement, while the other continued to struggle. Eventually we lost her too. The little survivor miraculously started to grow stronger and even began eating small amounts of food. Dr. Perez was shocked at her amazing recovery. Since the girls were nearly identical, he was unsure which one he had and so gave her a new name: Milagros, which means "miracle" in Spanish. Everyone in the office called her Millie, for short.
Following her recovery, I was chomping at the bit to take her home. I didn't know which of my girls had survived, but I was overjoyed that one had pulled through this nightmare. I'll never forget the moment I opened her crate for the first time and Sydney's sweet little face came out. I was overjoyed to see her again, and it seemed perfectly fitting that Sydney, the little fighter, was the one who had survived against all odds.
After everything we'd been through together, there was no way I could ever give Sydney up. We had formed a close bond throughout our ordeal, and even though I'd sworn that none of these foster cats would become my cats, I knew I could never let her go. No one argued with me when I told them.
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| Me and baby Sydney after her recovery |
We later found out the the virus the kittens had been fighting was called distemper, which is kind of like the parvo virus that afflicts puppies. This diagnosis was confirmed several weeks after bringing Sydney home, when she started to display some strange symptoms. We noticed her frequently shaking her head, and initially thought she had contracted ear mites. We treated for the mites but the shaking continued. Other symptoms started showing up, such as tripping when she ran and the inability to jump up onto things. We started seriously researching her issues and eventually (with a vet's agreement) confirmed that Sydney had developed cerebellar hypoplasia. This means that her cerebellum (the part of the brain that controls motor skills such as running and jumping) did not fully develop in utero. This is commonly caused when a mother cat is infected with distemper when becoming pregnant. The virus infects the kittens before they are born and may interrupt their development.
The good news is, Sydney's disorder is considered non-progressive. She still occasionally has head tremors and can't jump quite as high as other cats, but she is completely unaffected by this and you would be sadly mistaken to refer to her as handicapped.
Sydney is 2 1/2 now and is, in every sense of the word, perfect. She has a new adopted-sister, Lilly, and they completely adore each other. She is the most social, loving cat I've ever known and is absolutely in love with life. Sydney is living up to her namesake as well as a cat ever could, and I am blessed to have her. We look forward to a long and happy life together.
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| Grown-up Sydney |
Sydney Ann Blanton Memorial Page
~Shine On, Sydney~
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