Simon and miracles

Um, yes, he loves to have run of the house! :-)

Who couldn't love this face?

Chillin!

Right after Toby's death, Simon was pretty cuddly...and he continues to be to this day. :-)


I received a phone call today. It was Simon's vet. Yesterday, I took Simon to the vet to have his yearly vaccinations, and because he is now 13 years old, they ran "geriatric blood tests" on him. These would determine many things including organ functions.

Back tracking: When I moved to Hungary in 2000 with both Simon and Toby, Simon became very ill very quickly. Within days of my move I was at the Hungarian vet's office with my friend Mari and Simon, who was, well, not well at all. The vet determined rather quickly that he had been poisoned somehow (probably licking paint in my previous home in the U.S. before we left), and that they would have to do daily treatments on him, pumping him with medicines through IVs. The daily trek to the vet was not fun, especially since the vet would not give me any signs of encouragement or comfort, but would say, day after day, "We'll see how he responds."

During the course of these treatments, which lasted nearly two weeks, the vet began to explain that the poison was causing his kidneys to shut down and if that happened completely, then he would not make it. Of course I and many others prayed for Simon's healing. Finally, he began to show signs of bouncing back, and then, on the last day of Simon's treatments, the doctor gave him the release that he did not have to come back.

It was on that day that he explained to me, through the interpreter, that he was amazed that Simon lived. The reason he never gave me any encouragement during the two-week ordeal was because he really didn't think he would live. His kidneys were already shutting down and he thought Simon was a goner due to the poison coursing through his body. At the end of all the treatments, he told me that blood tests showed that Simon had completely "lost" one kidney and that the other kidney was only partially functioning...maybe 1/2 of the kidney was still working. This concerned me, but he said that he could definitely live a long life with just 1/2 a kidney. Mind you, kidneys do not regenerate themselves, unlike skin or some other organs, so once they are "dead", they're dead.

I remember praising God for sparing Simon's life back in 2000, and praying that God would heal his kidneys. I'd forgotten about that prayer...til today....

Simon's new vet here in KC called today and left a message. In it he said that Simon's blood work came back with "outstanding" numbers. In fact, both of his kidneys are fully functional, which surprised him, given the situation I told him about in Hungary. He is an extremely healthy cat, especially for being age 13!

Yes, God is in the miracle business, even with creatures besides humans! I praise God tonight for the miracle He did in Simon's body, healing his kidneys!