Gizmo

Gizmo (aka, His Gizmoship, and Little Guy) is a tabby who was abandoned at a parking garage at Tysons Corner. Frances found him in early July 1993 on one of the hottest days of the year. He was very dirty, tired and hungry. According to the vet he was about 3 months old. Gizmo's rescue was written up in the Washington Post. When we couldn't find someone to adopt him we kept him. Gizmo is extremely active and extremely affectionate -- he is a purring machine! He is also very vocal, every couple of minutes he is crying "wa-wa."

Even though he is now bigger than our older cat, Nikita, he still defers to her.

Gizmo lives in an average house in Fairfax County, Virginia, about 18 miles from Washington, DC. The house has three stories with many hiding places and lots of space for a cat to play; it is a feline Disneyland. Except for occassional treats, Gizmo eats Iams cat food which he seems to enjoy.

Late in 1998 we noticed Gizmo was drinking a lot of water, was eating more but seemed to be losing weight, and was very cranky. He was also having litter box "problems." On December 30, 1998 we took him to the veterinarian. When we described his behavior, the doctor said something about diabetes. When they weighed him he was only 11 pounds, five months earlier he had weighed 18 pounds. The doctor took a quick urine test and found his sugar was sky high. There was little doubt he had feline diabetes.

For the next few weeks we took Gizmo to the doctor nearly every day. Gizmo was not a happy guy. He spent the day at the vet's to have his blood sugar tested so we could determine the right insulin dosage. Gizmo now gets 5 units of insulin twice a day. He doesn't mind the injections, he thinks he's getting extra attention. Since he's been on insulin, his behavior has returned to normal.

There is another Gizmo with diabetes.

How Gizmo Spends His Day

• Begging for attention -- 10 hours
• Sleeping -- 8 hours
• Playing -- 2 hours
• Staring into space -- 1 hour
• Watching birds, squirrels, and rabbits -- 1 hour
• Patrolling the house -- 1 hour
• Eating -- 1/2 hour
• Bathing -- 1/2 hour

Gizmo has a cousin, Cosmo, an orange and white Cornish Rex who lives in an apartment in New York City.. He also has cousins, Belle, Mr. Mindy, Blacky & Tigger, in Indiana.

Gizmo & Nikita's Favorite Books

Please sign Gizmo's Guestbook.

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