The cat who blows her nose

Last Sunday Luna was not well; she seemed to be in abdominal pain and had been vomiting since Saturday morning. She did not want to be in the house, which is most unusual. So despite it being Sunday, I called Delfino, who came over to see Luna and ended up taking her back to the clinic for subcutaneous fluids and antibiotics and observation.

Luna allowed Delfino to pick her up out of her bed and put her into the cage - something she normally would fight tooth and nail to avoid. So that confirmed that she was not well. "Let me help you", pleaded Delfino before he tried to pick her up. I guess she understood.

Luna recovered and came back home Monday evening. Delfino said he knew she was better when she tried to bite him. I think that is a good indication of the health of an animal - if they are strong enough to resist or run off, then they probably don't really need you anyway. So Luna was better.

But a few days later Luna's right eye looked like it was bothering her, and I heard her sneezing. So maybe she caught a cold over there at the clinic. But she continued to eat normally and sleep peacefully on the couch so I decided to watch and see if she got better on her own or if she got worse.

The 'sneezing' sounded so odd - one long continuous sneeze rather than a burst of little cat sneezes. Finally I got to see her in action during a sneeze, and this is how it went:

First she screwed up her face, as if she had an itch inside her nose. And then she blew air out of her nose and shook her head. What I had thought was a sneeze was really Luna blowing the itch out of her nose. In all my years with cats, that is a first. I don't know if all cats can do it, but Luna can blow her nose.