When Ponzo came home from the animal hospital in July, it had been barely noticeable that he was favoring his left hind leg, which he did not want me to touch, although I insisted. Physically, his leg appeared fine, other than being perhaps a little swollen, but Ponzo kept favoring it more and more. Four days later, Ponzo started having muscle coordination difficulty and mobility problems. He staggered whenever he walked.
The night of July 7 was a long one for both of us. Ponzo had his first muscle spasm or mini-seizure sometime toward morning, after he and I had both finally dozed off together. I was suddenly awakened when one of Ponzo's paws attached itself to my right arm, but I kept my eyes closed because I wanted to remain calm as I reassured Ponzo that it was okay. I believed he was on the verge of falling off the bed, so time was of the essence; my goal was to keep Ponzo from falling, with minimal damage to my arm. Although it seemed much longer, I am sure it took only seconds for me to detach his paw from my limb. Barely a mark, quite surprisingly! Later that day, however, I got a claw accidentally embedded in my right cheek, and that was followed by claws in my arms, one at a time. That is how long it took me to learn to get out of the way of Ponzo's occasional, uncontrollable leg movements. Finally, I was able to keep my eyes open and observe. Ponzo was always conscious and never appeared to be in any pain during these episodes, which I now refer to as muscle spasms. Musculoskeletal spasms?
Less than a week later, Ponzo was doing much better, although he walked on wobbly legs. Then the spasms started again. Ponzo would flop over, but he was always alert and responsive. Ponzo even had a couple of good days before July 25, when I read him his last rites, so to speak. But throughout it all, I sensed that Ponzo had a very strong will to live and that he was happy to be living indoors. Aside from my intuition, I had been doing a lot of research, and I suspected that it might be something other than FIV which was causing Ponzo's horrible spasms, such as when his right paw would suddenly go over his head. Especially when I saw that Ponzo had recovered miraculously on the morning of July 26. Why, and how, did the spasms just suddenly disappear?
I believe that Ponzo may have been bitten by a black widow spider. I have read that most black widow bites are fatal to small cats. Those that do survive are lucky, needless to say, for it takes about a month for the poison to work out of a cat's system. And black widow bites do cause spasms. I was told later that it has something to do with calcium. Spider bite or no spider bite, Ponzo did very well for an entire month after his last spasm.
Ponzo was a relatively healthy-looking cat throughout the entire month of August. That is, until last Friday. By Saturday morning, Ponzo was running a slight fever, which meant his body was trying to fight the FIV, and I played nurse again. The good news is that the fever broke on Sunday, and Ponzo decided to eat on his own soon afterwards. After drinking some water, he inspected his four food bowls. Ignoring the bowl filled with dry catfood, Ponzo walked up to an empty bowl, which happened to be his designated chicken soup bowl. I did not have to be fluent in any feline dialect to understand Ponzo's disapproving gaze, questioning me, "Where is my chicken soup?"
