My Cat Saved My Life

It was hard to resist a tiny, shivering, ball of fur. Even harder when the ball of fur emitted almost inaudible mews and tried to follow you home. That is exactly how we acquired every cat we have ever owned. I had never seen myself as a "cat person," but there always seemed to be a few of them around. I would admit that cats were smart. I would admit that cats were affectionate. One cat in particular stole my heart and then saved my life.

My daughter loved animals. She was a stray magnet. If there was an abandoned kitten within two miles, it would find her. Some years back, the kitten of the day was a small gray and tan female with giant green eyes. I don't remember where she came from. I just remember her being the smallest kitten I had ever seen. I had never had the heart to turn one away and she was no exception. She found a home with us and became known as Uno.

It seemed she was still a baby herself when Uno began to bulge around the middle. She was full to bursting. When she lay down, you could see the odd leg or head poking nearly through her side. It had to be uncomfortable, but she never complained. When the day came, she had four kittens. They were so premature that they did not yet have fur. Three did not survive the night, despite veterinary care. There was nothing we could do.

The fourth was a fighter. Uno, realizing that she could not care for the baby, literally gave him to me. She brought him and put him in my lap. After months of bottle-feeding and sleeping with the little guy curled on my chest, I was a bit attached! Neelix grew to be a huge, blonde tabby with golden eyes and a deep rumbling purr. And incidentally, he was the most intelligent feline on the planet.

I had noticed him watching television and had seen the trophies from his hunting expeditions. It only mildly shocked me when he learned to open the front door to let himself in and out. He would bring me his food if his bowl ran empty too soon. Neelix was just of a rare breed. He was a big part of my life and an even bigger part of my heart. He then proved to me that I was his heart as well.

I had the flu. I had a slight fever, muscle aches, and a racking cough; the whole shebang.
After getting my daughter off to school and my husband off to work, I took some flu medicine and kicked back in my recliner to try to give my head a chance to clear. Neelix found his place on my chest, even though he didn't exactly fit there anymore. With his warmth and hypnotic purr, it wasn't long before I was sound asleep.

When I woke, I was very confused. Instead of being in my recliner on a beautiful autumn morning with my cat on my chest, I was in a hospital room and it was dark out and I had a respirator tube coming from my mouth. I had never been so scared in my life. The panic began to ebb as my eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room. I saw my husband and daughter sleeping awkwardly in a bedside chair.

I couldn't speak because of the respirator and couldn't move much due to the I.V. line snaking from my right arm. I tapped on the bed railing and my husband started awake. His eyes were worried and he looked exhausted. It made me panic again. What had happened? He called for the nurse and hugged me as he cried. He was talking into my hair as he held me. The only phrase I could make out was something about my cat. I motioned that I wanted the respirator out in a bad way. He soothed me until the nurse came in, checked my vital signs, and, thankfully, removed the breathing tube.

My voice would come only in a whisper. I asked all of the questions that had formed in my confused mind. The story that my husband told me made me cry right along with him. I had had an allergic reaction to the flu medication that I had taken. Not only was it an allergic reaction, but I had been in a semi-coma for thirty-six hours. The last thing I remembered was sitting down in my recliner with Neelix on my chest.

I had not dozed out, I had become unconscious. It was just before eight o'clock. At ten thirty, my next door neighbor heard a cat making an insistent howl on her front porch. She recognized Neelix and tried to get him to quiet down. She picked him up to pet him, but his howling never stopped. She said she had never heard such a sound.

Thinking that there was something wrong with him, she carried Neelix home. Just as she noticed that my front door was open, Neelix leapt out of her arms and ran inside, mewing wildly the entire time. She approached the door and knocked on the frame. Neelix waited in the foyer, anxiously pacing. She got no answer when she called out. She found me in my recliner, barely breathing with a pulse so faint she could not feel it. She called an ambulance and my husband.

At the hospital, the doctor told my husband that I was suffering from a form of anaphylactic shock caused by flu medication reacting with a prescription I was taking. He said that without medical care, I would have surely stopped breathing all together in a matter of minutes. Neelix had saved my life.

With the story told and tears in my eyes, I was in awe. How could my cat have known that I was in trouble and not merely napping? My husband had the answer: Neelix had spent the better part of his life on my chest. He knew that something was wrong when my breathing slowed and my heart rate dropped and he went to get help.

My cat saved my life. I recovered quickly and couldn't wait to get home. I couldn't wait to see my blonde hero with big golden eyes. I was not even out of the car when he leapt into my arms. I sat in the driveway and cried, soaking his fur and he did not mind at all. We spent what seemed like an hour that way; him purring and me crying. My husband finally convinced me to go in out of the cold.

Although he changed my life by saving it, Neelix never acted any differently. There was the same love and protectiveness in his eyes that had been there all along. But for me and for my family, he was a true hero. We could all learn from his example. True heroes never expect a reward. All Neelix expected was a warm place on my chest and in my heart. And I gave both gladly.