The weekend before we found Grayson, Kathy was singing at one of the local churches and met our veterinairian.  Our vet tried to convince Kathy that they had the perfect abandoned cat to add to our group at the clinic.  At that point we had ten and Kathy was adamant there would not be an eleventh.

A few days later, we were going to pick up a car from being serviced.  I saw what looked like a dead puppy laying in the middle of one of our town's busier streets.  Kathy was driving and as we got closer, she said that it was a kitten.  We both thought it was dead.  As we passed it, I looked back and saw it raise its little head.  I told Kathy to turn around as I saw a truck just barely miss the poor little guy.  She pulled into a driveway and I jumped out of the car (didn't even remember to shut my door).  At this point I assumed it had been hit and planned to take it to the vet to be euthanized so it wouldn't suffer.  I stopped traffic and bent down to pick it up.  To my surprise, the kitten jumped up and started to run down the street.  Now picture this portly older man chasing a tiny kitten through traffic.

Finally, he jumped the curb and dove under some large bushes.  I could not reach him so I crawled down under the bushes as well.  At this point Kathy had the car turned around and I could hear her driving up.  She could not see me or the kitten and was calling for me.  I yelled back that I was under the shrubs.

I was able to get a hold of the little guy by the scruff of the neck and got back in the car.  I could see that his bottom lip had been torn and was hanging loose.  Off to the vet we went.  The torn lip was all the damage the vet could find, so I told her to try and repair it.  Apparently this is a hard area to repair and surgery is only successful 50% of the time.  The vet estimated he was six weeks old.

The first surgery did not take and the sutures came out in two days.  A second repair was succesful, however.  Now, unless you know he was injured, you cannot even tell he had a major trauma.  Since he was almost solid gray except for a white locket and apron, we decided to call him Grayson.

After a little shakey start, Grayson has thrived.  He doubled his weight in four weeks and has now joined the garage group as our official, eleventh cat.  All the other cats play with him and seem to have fully adopted him.  He is the most manic kitten I have ever seen.  Constantly active and running all over the place.  Splash always kept up with Domino and Blaze when they were little, but Grayson totally wears him out.

UPDATED OCTOBER, 2006

It has been an eventful year for Grayson.  He remains as manic as ever, but has had some health problems.  Last December, he began getting eye infections.  Once a month he would get infected in his right eye, then a week later his left.  No evidence of URI, just eye infections.  The infections would respond to Clavamox, but would get worse if I used opthalmic antibiotic ointment or drops.  At first they were quite severe, but gradually would fade in intensity.  We eventually started giving L-Lysine, thinking it might be the Herpes virus.  The eye infections diminished, but I do not know if this was because of the Lysine or if they have just been running their course as they were already getting better before the Lysine was started.  Whatever the remedy, he now still get s an occaisonal irritation that will last usually for three days and then clear completely.   The eyes no longer swell completely shut.  I still give him a brief run of Clavamox each time I see him start to squint.

Grayson also has always had soft stool that was rather smelly.  Well, the Lysine appears to have largely cleared that up as well.  He is now having normal stools.

His third health problem is perhaps the most worrisome.  At his yearly veterinairian check, my vet thought she heard a II/VII heart murmur.  He goes back in for a recheck the end of this month.  If he still has a murmur, I will need to take him for an echocardiogram.  I am hoping it is gone.  Poor Grayson remembers his prior mouth surgeries all too well.  His heart was racing at the vet's out of terror.  He shows no outward sign of heart disiese.  As I stated before, he is as manic as ever.