The Finding of a Therapy Cat: a series about Tinkerbelle, Registered Pet Partner Therapy Cat (retired) and our journey together.
By Mollie Hunt
Part 32: Tinkerbelle’s Challenge
Tink was rounding on the ripe old age of thirteen when she began to cough. At first I thought it was a hairball issue, so I brushed her long, silky fur without mercy. But she kept on doing it. When I took her to the vet, I found out she had feline asthma! Asthma isn’t uncommon in cats, and manifests itself by persistent coughing and wheezing while squatting with shoulders hunched and neck extended. I soon learned to easily distinguish the asthma cough from the hairball hack.
The vet prescribed an inhaled aerosol steroid, given through a special inhaler device designed for cats. I wasn’t sure how Tinkerbelle would react to the twice-daily “puffs” but like a trouper, she took it in stride. For the most part, the medication worked, but I still had to watch for a breakthrough attack, and was given a rescue inhaler just in case.
If your cat “coughs” often without producing hairballs, ask your vet about feline asthma. It’s easy to treat, and the treatment may save her life!
About Tinkerbelle:
Tinkerbelle served for four years as a registered Pet Partner Therapy Cat, visiting assisted living facilities and hospice patients. Tink is now retired and living a quiet life. Check out her Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/TinkerbelleTheTherapyCat/
About Mollie Hunt: Native Oregonian Mollie Hunt has always had an affinity for cats, so it was a short step for her to become a cat writer. Mollie is the author of THE CRAZY CAT LADY COZY MYSTERY SERIES, featuring Portlander Lynley Cannon, a sixty-something cat shelter volunteer who finds more trouble than a cat in catnip. The 3rd in the series, CAT’S PAW, was a finalist for the 2016 Mystery & Mayhem Book Award, and the 5th, CAT CAFÉ, won the World’s Best Cat Litter-ary Award in 2019. Mollie also published a non-cat mystery, PLACID RIVER RUNS DEEP, which delves into murder, obsession, and the challenge of chronic illness in bucolic southwest Washington. Two of her short cat stories have been published in anthologies, one of which, THE DREAM SPINNER, won the prestigious CWA Muse Medallion. She has a little book of Cat Poems as well.
Mollie is a member of the Oregon Writers’ Colony, Sisters in Crime, Willamette Writers, the Cat Writers’ Association, and NIWA. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and a varying number of cats. A longtime volunteer for the Oregon Humane Society, she socializes sad, fearful, and behavior-challenged cats. She also fosters sick and elderly cats in her home. In 2014, she had the privilege to work with cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy on a particularly thought-provoking case.
You can find Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer on her blogsite: www.lecatts.wordpress.com
Amazon Page: www.amazon.com/author/molliehunt
Smashwords Page: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/CatWriter
Draft2Digital ebooks: https://www.draft2digital.com/book/
Facebook Author Page: www.facebook.com/MollieHuntCatWriter/
Sign up for Mollie’s Extremely Informal Newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/c0fOTn.
