My tortoiseshell cat Alice awoke from a deep sleep on the living room chair with a startled yelp and a disoriented gaze. I comforted her, thinking she had just had a "nightmare."
I adopted Alice four months earlier, when she was a 9-month-old kitten, from a local animal shelter. At the time of this first incident, she was just a little more than a year old.
Within two months, her "nightmares" became more frequent, so I made an appointment with our veterinarian, James Booth, of the Aggie Animal Clinic in Dixon, Calif. He gave her a physical exam and ordered a complete blood chemistry panel. What he told me came as a shock.
"Your cat has a seizure disorder," he said.
**Get the October 2008 issue of CAT FANCY to read the full article.**