Kioko

The new addition to our home is so cute, but I feel like I shouldn't get attached.

She's been her for a week tomorrow, and she's been living in the bathroom until my roommate deems her large enough to roam freely about the kitty hazard house. That doesn't mean she stays there all the time - my roommate most often takes her into her room and bed and they hang out and nap together, and I usually nab her a bit in the he morning and before I go to bed when I'm in my room.

She's such a sweetheart. She's afraid of sound, and obviously that's not a good introduction when I came into the bathroom to use/visit her and I had the overhead light that also turns on the exhaust. She's very, very curious, and a little playful. Now when I go to the bathroom, she gets up from her little nest and goes to wherever you are and wants some love. Even when I'm brushing my teeth or using the neti pot, she's perched right near my feet, and she wants to be on my lap when I'm on the toilet. She's also a parrot-kitty, and loves staying on your shoulder. As soon as you step in the bathroom and start petting her, she just revs up the purring.

But she has this cold. It started with little sniffles during the weekend, and it's gotten worse. Before, she would just sneeze a lot, and they'd be juicy little bits that would spray some kitty snot about. In the past few days, however, it's obvious that she's congested - as she tries to breathe through her nose, you can just hear the congestion as she breathes. And she sneezes A LOT. On top of that, her left muzzle doesn't look good, as when my roommate got her, she had black specks all over her face, which my roommate decided to try picking off. Turns out those were scabs, perhaps from scratches from the other kitties. Now that spot looks red and raw. I've also noticed "flea dust" in her rather thick fur (she'll be a fluffy), and I actually saw a flea today, which confirms their presence.

Since I've been missing my roommate since she's working the swing shift again this week, I've sent her emails and notes about my concern for Kioko. She sounded really bad yesterday, where her breathing drowned out her rather loud purring. When I came home last night, I got a note reporting that she isn't getting better, but is eating and drinking, and that I should just change her water and give her lots of love. I could easily do that, but that's not going to make her any better. I wrote back asking her if she should go see a vet. Her reply was that she thinks she should, but doesn't have the money right now, and she and someone else read that something like that should go away in 7-10 days.

Only thing is, she's still small and growing. If this doesn't kill her, it may permanently damage her respiratory system. It also doesn't help that my friend told me the story when she first got one of her cats, he had a cold, which started affecting his eye, and had to have eye gunk put on it.

I don't know. The situation frustrates me. Sure, my roommate had the money to get her and buy her necessities, but she should also be responsible for taking care of her. Maybe she shouldn't have bought new tires for her project car if she knew she was going to have a cat, an added expense, especially since this situation has come up. She isn't like a project car or a camera or something else wrong with the house that could essentially wait to be fixed until the money is there, we're talking about another life she's decided to take care of, of which she can't right now. I'm afraid to think that she thinks that whatever happens happens - if she gets better, that's cool, if not, that would suck and she's out the money she's spent on her already, but maybe this way she could get an all-white cat people have been giving away that she would ideally want.

I offered to lend her money to take her to the vet, but I'm not sure if she'd take it, and even if she did, I'm afraid she may think it's a waste of time, money and effort.