Maggie was dumped at the county shelter - the owner said "too many animals".  So, we took her in.

We have pulled her records and have almost all her history.  The person who turned her in said "no health problems" on the county form. However, the owner also turned in extensive vet receipts, and somewhere along the line Maggie was diagnosed with emphysema but we don't see any problems or hear her wheezing at all.  Our vet thinks it is possible she was in a home where the people smoked and that may have made her cough and shown some inflammation on her lungs. The xrays we got just recently show NO inflammation and we have not heard her cough at all.  Also our vet says any lung disorder for animals is termed "emphysema" - it's just a catch all word most of the time.

We asked our vet to summarize in a letter so we could quote her, so here is what she had to say:  "Maggie had previously been diagnosed with emphysema at a different veterinary clinic.  I examined Maggie on 9/7/2010. At this point the cat is not showing any symptoms that would support a current diagnosis of emphysema or any other respiratory disease process. The cat is able to breathe normally with no wheezing both at rest and wtih activity.  We performed radiographs of her heart and lungs...at this point I do not see any evidence of a current or ongoing significant respiratory disorder.  I have no way of knowing if her previous issues could potentially resurface at some point...at this time I do not see any reason why she couldn't continue to live out a normal life span. I believe that the cat in her current condition would make an excellent candidate for adoption." 

Maggie was a bit anxious in a shelter environment with alot of cats. She wants to be petted, petted, petted!!! So we moved her to a quieter foster home and she is thriving.  See her new pictures.

She gets along fine with other cats (really she ignores them, even if they hiss at her)!! Her favorite toy is the cat dancer.  Her foster mom says she is absolutely precious.

Contact: mona at meowmail1@gmail.com