About a month ago, we told you about a cat lost in a vet office.Max was dropped off for boarding at Southwest Animal Hospital.
While her cage was open, the veterinarian said she escaped into the ceiling.
They said they had looked for her but never found her, and did not have much hope after a couple of weeks. Max's owner Susan Rasmussen lost hope after about four weeks.
Rasmussen was out at lunch when she got a phone call that shocked her. It was the veterinarian from Southwest Animal Hospital.
"He said, 'she was in the ceiling and last night we were here after hours and we heard something, and we went to move a ceiling tile and she practically fell on our heads,'" said Rasmussen.
She picked Max up at the vet, who said she was underweight but in generally good health so she was able to take her home. Max was very weak, and had to be fed with a syringe.
Max was back home for 24 hours before the drama returned.
She had a seizure and had to be brought to another vet. She had to be left at the vet yet again. After four days of testing, they diagnosed her with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy---a thickening of the heart muscle.
Rasmussen said Max never had heart problems, and wonders if they didn't develop during five traumatic weeks lost in the vet clinic ceiling.
"I did not get the impression that there was a lot of activity going on to find this animal that was in their ceiling," Rasmussen said.
Her life expectancy is now one to two more years, which is many more time than they thought they had after she got lost in the ceiling.
Susan hopes with love and care, perhaps they can get another couple lives out of this cat.
Max was first dropped off with Susan's two other cats.
Southwest Animal Hospital did charge Susan for those first two cats, but did not charge her anything for boarding Max.
They also did not charge her for any of the blood work and tests they did on Max when they got her down from that ceiling.
