Alex Update

Your prayers were potent, and I have good news.

[Previous post, “Alex Needs Prayers,” here.]

Nestor examined and x-rayed Alex, and first told me that his organs, spleen, etc, were ok. That’s what kills cats when they fall—organ damage— and if so, it happens within about an hour and a half, so we knew right away we had cleared the first hurdle.

“Tranquila,” he said.

Half an hour later all the test results were in, and Alex had the classic signs of a successful fall, what Nestor calls “parachute cats,” which they studied in veterinary school. They turn into parachutes when they fall, and they usually impact their jaw and often their sternum. Alex has a sternum fracture, and nerve damage, which is why he couldn’t walk or stand. He definitely fell.

His gums were a good color, which meant his blood flow was good. He was in shock, and very afraid. He got a calming shot and a 4 day anti-inflammatory. He has to stay in a dark, calm place, and I have to watch his breathing, and call Nestor tomorrow.

I am going to buy a gift for my friend who introduced me to Nestor. I told Nestor and his vet tech Marina, that every time I visit him, I write about him. That his name is legend in many countries. He laughed, and Marina asked if I would send these articles to her.

I said: “I may keep them off the roof from now on,” and he said, “Let him have his freedom.”

I’m going out to buy arnica—the health food shop was closed earlier.

Alex is resting in the closet with the electric blanket next to him, and Rafa is cleaning him, with great devotion.

I don’t know what I have done to deserve this grace but I’m going to devote myself to thanking God for yet another heaven sent gift.

I have no right to ever lose sight of gratitude again, and really, that’s all we know, when we say we are believers. It means not that our prayers are always answered, or that we understand how God works, but simply that we try to understand just how much thanks we owe, for every day given— every loss averted.

When I realized how injured Alex was, I had a flashback/flash forward to something my mind created, from back home. They were telling me how bad it was, and telling me I would have to put him down. Like the time I accidentally poisoned Lewis with Ivermectin in CT, and they repeatedly tried to persuade me to euthanize him.

You know I often write about these two worlds of veterinary culture—US and Spain, one which wields a lot of money and little hope, one which wields little money but much more hope. How those things intersect in terms of cause and effect, I don’t exactly know.

I only know that there is a spirit here that seems to believe in doing less, so much less, and that spirit weaves a tapestry that feels resonant of good outcomes.

How I can ever pay them back I do not know.

I feel the same about you all.

How can I ever express my gratitude at being allowed to work again, after all the years of being vaporized?

I only know never to take it for granted.

Thank you.

Rafa, before we left..

The fall