Power Of the Paw for Ernie

Ernie, our 9 year old 3 legged cat, who is much handsomer then the picture above.   Photo shy and a midnight cuddler, he loves to sit on laps late at night, but makes himself scarce during the day.  We adopted Ernie as a kitten with a badly broken leg when I was working at a vet office in Manhattan.

 

We tried to save his leg but none of the attempts to set it worked, so we amputated.  Unfortunately, Ernie got infected during the operation (the reason I stopped working at and using that vet) and became very ill.  Thankfully, he recovered and gets along fine with three legs:

 

 

Unfortunately, after he recovered Ernie was diagnosed with a heart murmur.  We have been monitoring it for 9 years and it has remained at about a 1 or a 2 and .  At yesterdays annual vet visit our vet felt Ernie's murmur had gotten slightly worse so he has to have additional testing with an echocardiogram, he last had one in 2008 and it showed his heart was in good shape and required simple monitoring.   Ernie is going in for his echocardiogram on Monday and I am a bit worried so please send some positive thoughts our way.  Although we don't feature Ernie on the blog that often, mostly do to his reluctance to be photographed, he really is a very, very special cat and an important part of our lives.