The real fun began last week. Wednesday afternoon, as we were sitting downstairs watching TV, little Pedro came staggering into the room, climbed up onto the couch in between us and literally passed out. It was late afternoon and the vet was closed, so even though he felt a bit warm, we decided to wait until morning to see how he was.

Morning arrived and Pedro's condition had worsened. He was completely lethargic and uncoordinated. At one point, trying to get down from his food bowl, he slipped and fell into a clothes basket head first. Tired as he was, Michelle had to rescue him from the pile of clothes.

So we rushed him down to our veterinarian who proceeded to take his temperature, inspect his gums and pronounced him healthy. At our concerned request, he begrudgingly agreed to run a basic blood screening. We took Pedro home and awaited the results due the following morning.

By the time Friday morning finally rolled around, Pedro's condition had degraded even further. He was barely able to lift his head and unable to walk. At one point Michelle stood him up to encourage him and he simply stood there and swayed. He was took weak to walk, and even too weak to lay down.

With Pedro's eyes glazed over, we called the veterinarian again only to find out his simple bloodwork was normal. In response to our concern, the vet agreed to monitor him for the day and perhaps run some tests. So we raced back down to his office and dropped off the sick kitten.

By three o'clock, figuring the tests had been run and perhaps yielded some results, we contacted the vet. One of his assistants informed us that Pedro was doing much better. They gave him an appetite enhancer and he was eating. Since he started eating, they decided not to run any tests.

A bit surprised, we brought Pedro home again. He seemed to be in better spirits and had a bit of energy. Once home, despite turning his nose up at the bowl of food we offered him, we did manage to feed him a few mouthfuls, one fingerful at a time.

By Saturday morning, his huge appetite disappeared entirely and he began fading in and out of consciousness. That afternoon, we packed him back into his carrier and drove him up to the emergency veterinary hospital.

The doctor there ran a full battery of tests after finding a dangerously elevated pulse. In addition, Pedro was now experiencing tremors in between his fits of exhaustion. They put him on fluids with a light dose of antibiotics, but despite their tests, they were unsure what was wrong.

We left Pedro in their care while we attended a friend's wedding in Cape May on Sunday. Initially, we had planned on spending Sunday night down in Cape May and celebrating our anniversary down by the shore on Monday. Instead, we forfeited our deposit and headed home Sunday night in order to transfer Pedro to a new veterinarian first thing Monday morning.

All during the drive, Pedro sat solemn in his carrier. Michelle and I prepared for the worst. We were ready to do whatever was necessary. To our surprise, however, once we let him out of the crate at the new vet's office, he began prancing to and fro, begging to be petted.

As I write this, he's apparently working on some sort of wonderous recovery under the careful watch of a competent animal doctor. No one has been able to pinpoint what's caused all of this, and no one knows what the eventual outcome will be.

The continuous rise and fall of our hopes over the past week has been exhausting. We've resigned ourselves now to simply sit back and take his treatment one day at a time. If he continues to improve, perhaps we'll get our cat back. If not...well, we've already prepared ourselves for that.