While looking up some information last week I ran across news online that a bill has been introduced in New York State proposing that pet food be exempt from sales tax. For me, that would almost pay for one tank of gas per month.

The bill is still in the early stages, but you can read more about it at these links:

Michelle Hinchey introduces bill to make pet food tax-free.

Assembly bill A04194.

Senate bill S7089.

Of course a cat named “Galaxy” would be cool! This is a story of a cat who is very much alive today. I think of her as a cool cat because of the long strange health journey she has traveled, and how she is now stabilized and living her little cat life in her happy way.

Being a professional cat sitter does bring about some occupational hazards. One of those “hazards,” is when you end up taking a cat into your home from a client who is in the nursing home or has passed away. Galaxy’s owner, Donna, had some serious health issues in the last years I knew her. She did a few rounds of unexpected time in the hospital, but would then go back home. She eventually was sent to a nursing home for rehabilitation, but ended up there as a permanent resident. Donna lived alone, but fortunately had some very good friends who worked with me and took care of the cats. One of her friends had already been taking her dog to agility classes and so on, so that person took her dog in permanently.

Donna had been a client of mine for many years. She often had 6 or so cats at a time. By the time this story happened, she was down to 3 cats. Galaxy and her sister, Sundance, had been adopted together years before Donna went to the nursing home. I remember when the other cat, Bright Star, appeared as a small stray kitten outside Donna’s house. She did try to find a home for Bright Star, but ended up keeping her.

Donna had been taking Galaxy to her regular veterinarian for some time, as Galaxy had started falling off of furniture, falling down the stairs, and sometimes drooled excessively and wouldn’t eat. Galaxy might sit in a covered litter box for an entire day or longer. At first, the diagnosis was some kind of stomach issue, so Cerenia was prescribed. Donna had neurological issues with her illness, so she was not able to give Galaxy any pills, and Galaxy was not all that cooperative. She was able to get injectable Cerenia from the vet, so if Galaxy started to have a bad drooling episode, she would call me up, and I’d head over to give Galaxy an injection.

Sometimes it seemed to help, and the problem was intermittent, so it was hard to know what was going on. Galaxy had bad days and good days. The vet ended up referring Galaxy to neurology at Upstate Veterinary Specialties in 2021. I drove Donna and Galaxy there, and Galaxy had her neurological exam. An MRI was recommended, but the price tag of $4,000 - $6,000, at that time, was not something Donna could handle. She asked me what to do. 

I said, “This is what I would do,” and I asked the neurologist some questions. The decision was to try treating Galaxy for motion sickness, basically, which involved giving her medication that could be purchased over-the-counter at CVS and the like. 

Donna wasn’t really able to give the medication to Galaxy on a regular basis, due to her own health issues. She did the best she could, and sometimes called me to come over and help. 

In April 2023, I got a phone call from one of Donna’s friends, letting me know that Donna had gone to the hospital for an unknown amount of time, so could I come over and take care of the cats until whenever? Fortunately, while I do get these calls often, so far I have never had more than one unexpected and extended emergency happening at one time. Of course I said I would start that evening.

When I arrived, I was confused to see all the food and water bowls flipped upside down … and then I saw Galaxy. She was just walking all around without stopping, walking through the food and the bowls, walking through the litter boxes, getting hung up on walls, pressing her head against the wall and trying to walk …. Not good. That was one of those times when I said, “Sometimes I hate my job.”

I went over to get a closer look, and I could see that Galaxy appeared to be blind. She was also covered in urine. I packed her up and we went to Upstate Veterinary Specialties emergency clinic, since she was already a client there with neurology. 

I expected to be told that Galaxy would have to be euthanized. As I sat in the waiting room, a veterinarian came out to see me. I thought, “This isn’t good,” and I assumed that she would deliver the expected news. When I asked, she said, “Oh no, we’re not even close.” Wow!

Galaxy stayed at the ER for two nights. Her eyesight came back. Sometimes cats can lose their sight if they have high blood pressure, but Galaxy’s was normal. She did eat and was OK, not great, but OK. I decided to take her back to Donna’s. She was prescribed some medications, and with the help of one of Donna’s friends, we took care of Galaxy in her home. 

After a few months, Donna was admitted to the nursing home permanently. She was very weak and couldn’t really talk. A friend of Donna’s friend agreed to take Bright Star into her home. I agreed to find a foster home for Sundance and Galaxy. Donna fortunately had a power of attorney person, so we got the pets out of the home and the power of attorney started the process of dealing with the house, car, and belongings.

After trying to think of the clients I had who currently had no cats, taking a break after the last one passed away, I contacted Crystal. I was hoping to find someone with no other cats who could take Sundance and Galaxy, as Sundance was pretty mean to other cats who were not her littermate. Crystal and her husband agreed to take the two; Crystal had experience with medicating cats, so she was ok with giving Galaxy her pills. 

When I brought the cats over, Crystal explained how she had set up cat beds and food and water under the bed, in case the cats hid. And of course she had set up food, water, and litter for them elsewhere. I opened the cat carriers, and both cats came right out. Sundance looked around, hopped up onto the dining table, and stretched out to survey her new kingdom. Galaxy walked around and checked everything out, never hid. They just took over! 

I felt confident leaving the cats there. But, a few days later, Crystal contacted me to say that Galaxy had been stretched out on the couch all day, and wasn’t moving. She didn’t look good. Crystal and her husband had just recently been through two cat deaths, both cats being sick and in declining health, needing lots of nursing, so I knew I couldn’t just walk away from this. 

I said I’d come over, and when I got there, she let me in and saw Galaxy all stretched out on the couch, looking close to death. I said, “Galaxy!” She popped her head up, meowed loudly, and hopped down from the couch, and started walking everywhere and meowing. Crystal and her husband couldn’t believe it. I said I’d take her home with me. 

The saga of Galaxy just got more complex from there. Just like at Donna’s, she would have OK days and bad days. Between April 2023 and July 2025 Galaxy made 6 or 7 trips to the ER. We never left Galaxy at home when we went away. She needs medicine twice a day, and if she starts to go downhill, it’s fast. She needs to get the to ER. I have had many experiences where people leave their sick cats with me when they go away and I have to take the cats to the ER. It’s very sad, but the cats don’t always make it out alive. So, I didn’t want to burden my pet sitter with that possibility.

Galaxy has traveled to St. Regis Falls, NY, for two vacations. She went to Chincoteague Island, VA, last fall. She has been to Boston a couple of times, and Cold Spring, NY. She has been to a cabin in Greenwich, NY, for a couple of vacations as well. It was during one of our vacations in Greenwich that I had to drive her back to Latham to go to the ER, but I am happy to say that was one year ago today, and that is the last time she has been in the ER. Most of the ER trips were due to urinary tract infections, one being particularly stubborn. On a second trip back, a urine culture was sent out, and Galaxy was prescribed a different antibiotic which seems to have finally taken care of that particular bacteria. 

So how is Galaxy still here? 

During one ER visit the veterinarian said she thought that Galaxy might have a liver shunt, known as a portosystemic shunt. This is a blood vessel that goes around the liver, meaning that some of her blood bypasses cleaning. Her body is poisoning itself. I Googled and got, “When blood bypasses the liver, toxins build up in the bloodstream, leading to symptoms of poisoning including drooling, vomiting, blindness, bloody urine, and incoordination.” Wow!

More common in dogs than cats, the shunt can be present at birth or it can be acquired. There are several reasons as to why a cat would have an acquired shunt, and I don’t know if it would be possible to figure out the cause in one cat. No one has suggested trying that with Galaxy. 

This was a game-changer! A CT scan is the method used to diagnose a liver shunt, and yes, we had that done in March 2024. The internal medicine veterinarian who facilitated the scan said it would be sent out to a radiologist, and that she couldn’t interpret the scan for me. I always ask to see the scans though, I mean, I am paying for it. 

The vet happily set up a laptop and showed me the scans. It was amazing … I got to see a model of Galaxy’s blood vessels … in the shape of Galaxy! The vet was able to rotate the model, show me slices of it, and so on. Definitely worth seeing even if you don’t know what any of it means. 

The report came back. “An anomalous vessel arises from the portal vein near the origin of the cranial pancreaticoduodenal vein. Vessel can be traced along a tortuous, cranial, and dorsal trajectory before terminating onto the phrenic vein.” That’s it! That’s the shunt.

Galaxy was put on standard liver shunt meds, which are common, low-cost medications (lactulose and metronidazole). She also take a tiny dose of phenobarbital twice a day, for her seizure activity, and is on a tiny dose of a steroid. I have tried to wean her off of the steroid a few times, as per her veterinarians, but she crashes and that has been one of the reasons for her ER visits. 

At this point, her neurologist says maybe she has steroid-responsive hepatic encephalopathy (related to her liver shunt), and she seems to be doing ok on the continued steroids (hasn’t become diabetic, for example), so she can continue the steroid. 

Galaxy is supposed to eat a low-protein diet, which of course, she won’t eat. We even tried a veterinary nutritionist who created a recipe for Galaxy, for me to make. I felt like it took forever to make one batch of the food, with taurine powder added, and Galaxy wouldn’t touch it! Galaxy eats whatever she will eat, and that changes daily.

Once Galaxy’s UTI was really cleared up, and she continued medications for her liver shunt for 2 years, she became pretty stable! She jumps up onto laps expertly most of the time, jumps up onto chairs and couches. She does prefer to use the cat steps to get up onto the tall people bed. Galaxy does still sometimes slip down the stairs, but she has crash pads at the bottom, just in case! Galaxy plays with some favorite toys, with no warning, and actually leaps through the air, making us laugh a lot! She loves attention.

Galaxy still has some mysterious things going on. She had high calcium in her blood. An ionized calcium blood test and a cancer malignancy blood test were both negative; malignant cancer can cause hypercalcemia, but that was ruled out. Her internal medicine veterinarian suggested that Galaxy eat soaked chia seeds daily. While the chia transport mechanism changes (broth, squeezable treat, Tikki cat food, fortiflora, Greenies on top) the last blood test showed that Galaxy now has normal blood calcium.

Galaxy has high glucose in her urine, but her blood sugar is always normal, so she’s not diabetic. No conclusion on that one. She has had ammonium urate crystals in her urine. No specific treatment. 

Galaxy has chronic pancreatitis. I actually forgot all about that, and then at one ER visit the vet mentioned that Galaxy’s pancreatitis was acting up. I mean, at some point I can only focus on the big things!

I’m sure I am leaving out some stuff. But, here we are. A cat I never knew I would have living in my home, Galaxy is now 12 years old and doing quite well. Yes, she is a bit underweight, she still walks oddly, sometimes she tips herself over. Mostly she jumps over the crash pads when she gets to the bottom of the stairs. 

Cats love routines, and Galaxy has even come to wake me in the morning or start tripping me up in the evening when it’s time for her medicine. If she isn’t around and I started getting her medicine ready, she suddenly appears. It used to take two of us, me and Donna, to give Galaxy any medicine. Now, it’s quick simple process 99% of the time. 

Another big milestone: Galaxy had a bad reaction to her rabies vaccination in 2016 and received an exemption annually. At some point, she wasn’t getting a distemper vaccination either. In 2026, her internal medicine veterinarian said that Galaxy was doing well enough to get vaccinated. I took Galaxy to her regular vet and scheduled the two vaccinations two weeks apart from each other. She made it through with zero issues! 

On July 14, 2023, Galaxy officially became my cat. Here we are three years later. Her mom passed away a while ago. I was unfortunately never able to get permission to bring Galaxy into the nursing home to visit. Things have changed there, and I’ll cover that in a future article. 

Looking through the stack of Galaxy’s vet records, I read a note that I am sure I read in April 2023 after her first ER visit, but I don’t remember it at all. I guess that’s a good thing, as it said, “It is important to note that we are running out of medical options for Galaxy as we do not know what we are treating… if she doesn’t improve … consider a brain MRI or her quality of life.”

There is no “moral” to this story, except to say if you are the kind of person who wants to be able to afford a big vacation abroad, don’t get a cat like Galaxy!. Usually when one of my cats has a crazy health problem, I don’t get to say “Hey, here we are years later!” But, here we are. We really lucked out with one ER vet recognizing what Galaxy’s big health problem might be.

Galaxy is a cool cat with a typical tortoiseshell cat attitude. At her annual neurology review, in March 2026, the neurologist was pleased with Galaxy’s status, which means a lot to me! Galaxy loves to complain about the other cats in the house, and she usually enjoys travel, and loves to meet new people and check out any vacation spot! I know that at any point this could end abruptly, but I focus on each moment with her. 

We will be going on a short trip soon, and Galaxy is going to stay home this time. I feel confident enough that our pet sitter will be able to medicate her and not have to worry about a trip to the ER! Galaxy has come a long way!