Today was supposed to be a normal, boring, ho-hum day. One I was looking forward to. We brought Mimi back to stay with us last night and we took her and Q-tip for our usual Saturday morning breakfast walk. As we walked past the far end coffee shop, their harness bells (yes, they sound like reindeer when they go walkies) attracted Lung-Lung, a stray we haven't seen for quite a while.

The last time we saw Lung-Lung, she was a scrawny little thing who had lost most of her fur, though for reasons we couldn't fathom. She's a toughie, though. She had been attacked by a stray dog when she was a kitten, and till today the scars near her neck are still quite apparent. Today, she looked well-fed and she has recovered her lost fur. Her progress towards good health has been quite remarkable.

Here's the irony. Mid-day, Belle suddenly began miaowing in her panicked voice. She only miaows like this when we pack her in a travel cage and take her to the vet. She says, "miAO," emphasis on the last syllable, in this state. We went to see what was wrong and it was quite sad. She suddenly seemed to have lost the use of her hind legs. She was panting and the lower part of her body was cold. This didn't seem like normal cat behaviour so we called Dr Casey, who agreed to see her after 1400 though she didn't have a prior appointment.

Dr Casey didn't have good news for us. Belle had suffered a stroke and the resulting blood clot had cut off circulation to her hind legs. She didn't respond to the pain test and there was no pulse in her legs, so that's very worrying. What's hopeful is that so far she still has control over her bowels and that her general body temperature (she responded quite violently to the rectal thermometer -- she bit me) is still normal.

She'll be hospitalized for a few days while they try to dissolve the blood clot with medication and in the meantime she'll undergo further testing to see if there are other complications to her current problem. At least Dr Casey didn't say her condition was terminal, but how much use of her legs she recovers depends on how well she can respond to the treatment. Hopefully, we had brought her in early enough to be a factor in her recovery. Thankfully we hadn't left for Ikea yet, like we planned to do; else there'd be a major crisis when we got home in the evening.

Don't feel like going out right now. Apologies to Jordan for not being able to catch his last performance at Centrestage tonight before he leaves for the UK.

This is an unusual request, but say a prayer for Belle, ok?