Not really, but almost.
My wife went to see her folks over Christmas. I would have too (to Chicago) but money is tight and I have a business to run…
When she left, we were two-for-two: 2 cats, 2 of which were healthy.
She comes back, we have: 3 cats, 1 of which is healthy.
Ziggy is still in the hospital, Isabella has to go in the morning.
I thought it was gonna be the best Christmas present ever. My wife is hysterical with grief.
Details to follow… 
:eek: I hope Ziggy and Isabella are ok, and I hope you update this with good news.
Our house
Is a very, very fine house.
With dead cats in the yard,
Life used to be so hard…
Oh, dear. I hope everything turns out okay. When you’re up to it, tell us what happened?
Holy Crap! Did you just leave strange cats in the house together?
Oh man.
Last night I had the worst nightmare I’ve had in at least a year. My wife is currently living on the opposite coast doing a fellowship, so I’m living alone, except for our cat, whom we both adore.
So this was my dream: The cat had become mysteriously sick. He was in terrible pain, and looked like he wasn’t going to survive. I knew I’d have to put him out of his misery, and that I’d have to explain when my wife got home the next day (dream logic; one year = one day). For reasons not entirely clear (dream logic again), I chose to end the cat’s life by twisting his head and breaking his neck. So I did this, and I found myself holding his limp, dead body. I put him on the ground and wept myself dry. Then: His tail twitched. He began to breathe. Then he got up, and his sickness had mysteriously vanished, except now he was staggering around in a half-paralyzed limp because of what I’d done to his spine. I followed him through the house and the neighborhood, howling in grief for my misjudgement, in agony over his new suffering, trying to decide what to do next, even as he rubbed awkwardly against my legs, still loving me and not understanding what I’d done to him.
Then I woke up.
The cat, totally healthy and normal, was curled up next to me on the bed. He looked up when I came awake suddenly, and looked at me. I looked back. My heart was pounding, and aching with fear and sadness.
He said: “Mro?”
I scratched his head and ears until he purred himself back to sleep, and then I joined him.
Yeesh. Worst nightmare in a while, and no desire to experience anything like it in reality, so I definitely feel for you and hope you will have good news to report shortly.
Bringing in a new cat is apparently a sure way to make your other cats sick. My situation… week before my wedding, we have 3 cats, healthy as oxen, never seen them sick enough to go to the vet. We then decide to bring in a 1mo old rescue kitten. Kitten has fleas, all cats get flea treatment, one cat gets sick from treatment and spends the week of our honeymoon at the vet. The rest of the cats and kitten pass back and forth a variety of illnesses mostly dealing with weeping swollen eyes nasal discharge and ringworm.
Net net, we probably have brought cats into the vet 20 times over the last 3 months. At this point, they all seem pretty healthy, no more fleas or ringworm, no more puffy red eyes, no more sneezing kitty snot all over stuff.
Most expensive “free” cat, ever. On the plus side, we’ve bonded really well with our vet.
Very, very long post ahead (apologies around):
First of all, thank you everybody for the concern, “co-misery”, and anecdotes. I apologize for the delayed details…
Cervaise, when I was still in high school (18 years ago), I dreamt I cut off my dog’s pupils, by first pulling his face off like a halloween mask. Nightmares are nightmares… and that one really, really sucked.
Cheesesteak, your story is near verbatim to mine…
Secondly, for a quick update, Isabella is fine.
She passed ALL the tests… no leukemia, no FIV, no worms of any kind, but we’re still 1 for 3… Ziggy is still in the hospital, along with my 16 year old, Miranda. Ziggy’s symptoms were, refusal to eat or drink, drooling, and foaming at the mouth. It had never happened before, so of course I freaked and hospitalized him. But I didn’t want to ruin my wife’s only refuge with her family, so I tried to warn her without scaring her. It wasn’t easy.
Here’s the long story (please excuse my BAC):
We had two happy healthy cats, Miranda and Ziggy, and my wife (as they tend to do 
) wanted a new “baby”. Over and over she practically begged, but not really. She understood my reasoning for not bringing in a new kitten.
But the Spirit of Christmas overcame me while my beloved was away. I figured we could “rescue” a poor, poor kitty, while making my wife very happy, and giving Ziggy a playmate… It seems that Miranda just doesn’t like other animals. I don’t know why, but apparently they remind her of her own “wretchedness”.
Anyway, as expected, Miranda hissed at the new kitten, but Ziggy welcomed her because as a juvenile he had experienced the same misdirected agression from the matriarch feline.
Nowadays, a healthy Ziggy weighs twenty pounds (!). All muscle, a big neutered tomcat. I think there’s a term for it in humans… “Eunich”? I just remember “History of the World, Part 1”, with “no no no no no no no no no yes, yes…” The castrated ones ended up bigger. Is this typical?
Hennyweigh, I decided to bring home the greatest Christmas present ever. 'Twas a gift to not only my wife, but to her fave, Ziggy, as well… No longer would the biggest coolest fetchingest cat ever have to put up with persnickety biznatches… He’d have the sweetest little thang ready to intercept his LOVE.
And there we were: Fresh little 12 week old kitty, unafraid, walks up to the dominant male who outweighs her one to ten…
Really, 2 pounds to 20). They “kiss”, and 26 hours later Ziggy is drooling, refusing to eat or drink, practically foaming at the mouth.
26 hours after that, Miranda also refuses to eat or drink…and both cats are now, in the vet’s words, “Hooked up” to the I.V.
Of course this course is the correct one. If a cat refuses to drink water for two or three days, it WILL DIE unless FORCED TO DRINK or PLACED ON AN I.V.
That’s where we stand right now.
They’ve given Ziggy 13 X-Rays.
They’ve given him barium to make the X-rays more definitive.
Dr. Kelly is the Best Vet Ever.
She showed my wife and I the X-Rays, and explained why dark spots are trapped gas in his intestines… and why barium shows up as a blockage in his lower tract
All we can do now is hope…
I KNOW our two strong kitties can MAKE IT, if only they stay hydrated. And our cool-assed vets insist
on keeping them hydrated via IV, after days of dehydration, and they also refuse to prematurely operate. (as some prick money-grubber-vets) might do.
So we’re up to almost two fucking thousand dollars. But it’s worth my wife’s sanity.
It’s worth my love for my cat.
It’ll probably suck when our future human child needs braces.
Or not. 
Yeah… so far, my $65 “rescue” humane society kitty… is pushing $2,000 US… after you consider our loving residents and their subsequent hospital stays, IVs, drugs, vitamins, blood tests, stool tests, surgeries, miticide,fleacide, etc etc etc
Ummm but she’s a sweetheart.
Wow! I lost my dear Smokey this last year. A sudden diagnoses of heart disease and three weeks later he was gone. Anyways… A couple months before he passed I had a nightmare. I can’t remember why, but for some reason he had to die, for his own good sorta (dream reasoning…) I shot him many times with a bb gun. Like your dream, he seemed to die for a while, but then came back to life, in terrible pain from his wounds, looking at me like"why did you do this?" But still looking for love and solace from me. God! Worst dream I ever had.
Eleusis, I hope your kitties come thru just fine. Good wishes your way!
Can there be a worse dream???
'seems they come out frequently regarding our kitties, but SHIT hurting those you love, whether physically or emotionally, must really, really, really, really suck.
We might be lucky that our nightmares “only” involve kitties…
Do they have a diagnosis? Could it be something unrelated to the new kitty – maybe a holiday poinsettia that the cats nibbled on?
Hope they pull through!
Are the kitties suffering from an actual physical ailment or is it a psychosomatic response to the trauma of bringing in the new kitten intruder? You’d be amazed at how pets can make themselves sick.
**
My friend and her children begged for years for a dog but her husband, a cop, wouldn’t budge on the issue. Finally one Christmas, in a gesture of goodwill, he relented and they went to the pound to pick out the new family dog. They found one scrawny mutt who seemed like a nice dog. “Sadie” bonded instantly with everyone, but especially adored the husband. Whatever.
Fast forward five years and he leaves for a two week training class. Sadie acts depressed like she always does when he leaves for work. But K is so busy that it’s not until a few days later that she notices that Sadie had not eaten or drank anything since her husband left. K tries to entice her to eat with her favorite foods…nothing. Over the next few days Sadie continues to ignore food and to lose weight. Finally Sadie becomes so listless that she won’t even lift her head when the doorbell rings. Alarmed, K takes her to the vet. He can’t find anything wrong with her and they eventually reach the conclusion that the dog is indeed grieving over her husband. Thinking her master gone for good, she is dying of a broken heart.
So 8 days into his 12 day class, K calls her husband and tells him what the vet says. He tells her that he’ll be home on Friday but Kay tells him that she doesn’t think Sadie will last til then. So that night he drives the 5 hours from Cleveland, from his SWAT training class :), to tend to his dog, who loves him so much that she wants to follow him into the grave. Sure enough, the second she hears his car in the doorway, she is miraculously cured. After their emotional reunion, she eats her kibbles and drinks some water. All is well in her world again. Meanwhile, he leaves at 3am to drive back to Cleveland.
Stupid pets. 
Oh, and it goes without saying (but doesn’t) that I hope your kitties make a complete recovery.
I almost hesitate to ask, but how are the kitties doing?
They’re all home. Isabella and Miranda are 100%, but Ziggy is still a little under the weather. We have seen him eat drink and poop though, so that’s a good sign.
He didn’t eat or drink anything for almost two weeks, he’d have been a goner for sure if we hadn’t gotten him in there and on the IV.
The vets still haven’t come up with anything definitive… they think they “got into something” but we’ve racked our brains and there was nothing really toxic left out for them to eat or drink. No poinsettas either.
I’m still leaning toward the stomach virus from the new kitty scenario.
Thanks your your concern.
fewwww. I was holding my breath for a happy outcome answer from you Eleusis. Good wishes for little Ziggy.
Always good to hear a happy ending to a kitty story. Please scratch their ears, the bases of their tails, or wherever they like to be scratched for me.