The Story of Poppy

Lisa Pitt, pictured here, was having a bad day.
Lisa rescued rabbits from Renbury Pound and although I did not hear the full story  it was something about rabbits lost to illness that day and how she saw Poppy at the top of the list, pledged $200.00 for her rescue and gave her a name, telling Rach that she could not die without one.  Poppy was terribly ill with flu.  The cards were really stacked against her.

Then Lesley Inkson of Purr-fect Match cat adoptions asked if we could take her.
Poppy was so ill that they sent her to the vet overnight.

Poppy survived Renbury Pound top of the kill list on her last day.
She survived Calicivirus, Herpes flu, a heart murmer, extreme anaemia, dehydration, a lower than average temperature, kidney failure, bad liver reading, didn't eat voluntarily for two weeks and was discovered to be aged thirteen.

We picked up a second cat that day. He had the worst cough I had ever heard.
Both of these cats came home to us for short term care. Poppy stayed here because it was deduced that she did not have long to live but the other was a young boy we called Frankie and he went on to have an adoption through Lesley.

 We took Poppy to our vet where she had a blood test and I was given a lesson in how to do sub cutaneous fluids.  Apparently nobody expected her to live, least of all  the vet but I didn't know that then. I battled on for over two weeks,  I had a great fear of failure and would be mortified if she died.  On a follow up visit I can still hear the vet exclaim in shock that Poppy was still alive.

From time to time Lisa had contacted me to ask if Poppy was still with us. Poppy represented much to Lisa. 
She was a symbol of hope, a symbol of how expected consequences can be driven off and how we can win in the face of impossible odds. Poppy was a teacher to us all.  In fact that has become our mantra...'making the impossible possible.'
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Poppy lived on for two years. She sat in the sun out in the courtyard, slept in her own crate, ate like a trooper, sent the other cats packing with her menacing growl and even ate their food!

 Toward the end of the two years Lisa had cause to come up to Sydney.  
Days before she arrived a change came over Poppy. 
She became alert, active, enjoying life, she even climbed up to the top of the cages and sat on top. She stood looking out of the veranda at the street. We marvelled at such a thing. We joked that Poppy knew Lisa was coming.  And it was a grand meeting. Poppy was not that sociable normally but she amazed us the way she warmed to Lisa.

Not many days later though Poppy started to breathe a little hard.  Expecting some minor infection we took her in to the surgery.  We sat relaxed chatting while they took her to the other room to examine. When they came back they said she had fluid in the lungs but it was the mass in her liver that was the cause and she needed to be euthanised.

'Oh' I said...'but not today, not yet.'
'Yes it does, it needs to be done today.'
Poppy was fifteen.  It was her time to leave.

How bizarre that we are so closely linked. Poppy was kept alive by the fates so that Lisa could meet her. And then she was taken away into that other world and lives on in spirit and forever in our hearts.

Photos below of Poppy and Lisa and Poppy in the courtyard after her recovery.  Pictured with another rescue.

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