# The story of Anakin, my six month old Russian Blue



## BarneyH (Nov 28, 2008)

In November, we got two new kittens. One of them was Anakin, a 12 week old Russian Blue:










He was very small; and was actually suffering from giardia, though we didn't know it at the time. He slept:










and he ate:










and he loved his playmate, Miss Sophie, a Savannah, very much:










Bit by bit, Anakin grew, but more slowly than Miss Sophie. But he always had the energy to play:










Heartbreakingly, Miss Sophie died, 3 months old, for reasons no one can really explain. The vet thinks it was a heart problem. Either way, Anakin was suddenly without his friend and not putting on weight.










But then we cracked it. We found giardia, and began to treat him. Immediately the weight began to pile on, and Anakin went from a massively underweight cat at 3 months...










to a healthy, larger cat at 6 months...


























relaxed and happy with my kids...


















One week ago, we brought him a new friend - a 13 week old bengal kitten, called Sandy. They're already getting on...but so strange to see him as the big cat now:


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## Xanti (Nov 4, 2008)

What beautiful pictures, all of them!!!


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## lilyb (Dec 21, 2008)

Wow - again....lots of fantastic pictures 

So sad that you lost Miss Sophie - that must have been terrible for you. It's good that you've found Anakin such a lovely new playmate now. 

Are you a professional photographer?? It really seems so from your pics!


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

What a beatiful story about him. I think I recall reading about Miss Sophie? Anakin has certainly grown up VERY well and he is super-photogenic. What beautiful photography. So many of your photos are calendar-worthy.
Heidi


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## katlover13 (Apr 15, 2008)

You really take wonderful pictures! Anakin is such a handsome fellow.
Sandy is gorgeous, too.

It must have been awful for you and your kids to lose Miss Sophie.


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## Leazie (Apr 14, 2007)

Anakin is STUNNING, and how wonderful that he has accepted his new friend into his life so easily. As others have said, your pictures are amazing! Oh, and you have cute kids, too!


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## DesnBaby (Apr 18, 2004)

Adorable kitties


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## OctoberinMaine (Sep 12, 2006)

Wow, what incredible pictures! Was that your photography?

What's giardia? Is that like the flu?


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## BarneyH (Nov 28, 2008)

Thank you everyone for your lovely messages - both on this post, and the other post dedicated to Sandy

To answer a couple of the questions/comments -

1. Yes, these are my photos. Everyone's been very kind - I am not a professional photographer, though I guess I do take the hobby pretty seriously. If anyone's got any great ideas for setting up interesting cat photos, would love to hear them. I always thought that they cats would look cute playing against the green grass and flowers of my garden (and for technical reasons too - the light is bright enough outside to allow for faster shutter speeds - which provides all sorts of benefits for freezing the action without blur - or allowing for smaller apertures and thereby better depth of field...oh ok I'm getting techy and boring, sorry!)...but as kittens, they're indoor cats at the moment (and may well stay so) so don't want to create all sorts of problems by letting them out. Hence I have to use window light, or flash. May just need to find a green background for that next shot 

2. It truly was terrible with Miss Sophie. She had been incredibly affectionate the day before she died - she was a very active Savannah, though generally a little more highly strung than Anakin, and not as much of a "lap cat". On the night before she died, she came into our room and stayed on the bed for an hour or so - active, but keen to be in our company and stroked and cuddled. We commented on how extra friendly she was being. She trotted off at midnight...but when I went down to feed the cats in the morning, she was crouching in the corner of the room. Unlike normal morning, she didn't rush for her food. I went over to her, and could see that something was up - and that she'd gone lame in her hind legs and couldn't stand. In a panic, I rushed for the emergency vet number - it was a Sunday - but by the time I was back in the room, literally 3 minutes later, she had keeled over and was dead, with poor Anakin nuzzling her to wake up. She was still warm by the time I got to the vet to confirm that there was nothing that they could do (I had somehow prayed for a miracle and that she wasn't really dead). I did discover I am not very good in moments of panic - rather than calmly getting to the vet, I was a complete mess (made me worry about how calm I will be if something, god forbid, ever happens to my children). It was so completely out of the blue. The vet said that the speed of it, and lack of any other visible signs, sounded like a blood clot. They were going to do a post-mortem, but decided it was highly unlikely to find anything. The breeder has been very good, and replaced her with another kitten - we were going to go with another Savannah, but the new Savannahs kittens got sick over the winter. So we've switched to a bengal (Sandy), and in many respects I actually think she's prettier and cuter. 

3. Giardia is a parasite in the intestines - not always easy to detect - but it creates diarrhea and slows down absorbtion of food - hence the reason why Anakin wasn't putting on weight. We're not sure where he picked it up from - I think he probably arrived from the breeders with it. Strangely, it never affected Miss Sophie (much worse things were in store for her, bless her). For a long time the vet thought that he just had an inflamed bowel; but when we finally found the giardia bug we were able to treat him with metronidazole (panacur didn't seem to shift it) and he began to recover within a week.

Anyway, I'll keep taking photos and will post more - just let me know if they become boring.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

BarneyH said:


> Anyway, I'll keep taking photos and will post more - just let me know if they become boring.


Whaa-aa-aa-aat?! You're kidding, right? Please. _Tell me you're kidding._ Hey, everyone, are they pulling my leg? 

We LOVE :luv kitty pictures! :mrgreen: We also have several members here who do photography as a hobby and perhaps a few who make their living with it? I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly, but we all love to see good photos and learn photography tricks.
So. Please post more kitty pics. =^..^=
Heidi


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## OwnedByACat (Jan 11, 2008)

LOVE your pictures!


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## Silver deer (Dec 31, 2007)

What a touching story!! And gorgeous, gorgeous photos. They capture such great moments and technically they are so well shot.

I looove Russian Blues...

And I'm so sorry to hear about Sophie. I'm glad Anakin has a new friend, he looks like he's enjoying his new feline company!


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

Im so sorry to hear of the loss of your kitten. Ive gotten to a point where I can smell it in the poo and know somethings up. Your heart must be broken. Cats can come from Caterys with Giardia, FIP, URI and other diseases. Like shelters it can make the rounds quickly. Its awful. but without shelters there is no way we could help the million of kitties that need a place to stay till a new home is found.

Your photos are lovely. It is so hard to get great shots of cats since they dont obey and move around alot. Takes talent to get good photos. I really enjoyed them.


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## corinthia (Jan 25, 2009)

Sad story... But happy in the end!  
I love their ID tags, where did you get them?
And LOVELY pictures! I LOVE THEM!!!! (yes i'm yelling in excitment)


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## BarneyH (Nov 28, 2008)

Thanks!!!  

Good spot on the tags  I got them from Identitag - 

http://www.identitag.co.uk/pet_tags/index.htm

They make them overnight and post them next day - it's a pretty efficient service!

Barney


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