When Rockie Became Ill — The story of Rockie’s illness and diagnosis

Rockie has been with us from the very beginning of his life.

He is one of Tami’s five babies, born on 17 December 2020 into the CatsHope family alongside his siblings. We recently rediscovered photographs of them from those earliest days—five tiny kittens, still blue-eyed and barely steady on their feet, small enough to fit together inside a red shopping bag.

Three of those babies—Rockie, Simba and Cougar—never left us. Two were adopted when they were three and four months old, and these three grew up together and became part of our family.

Rockie and his family were known for their robust health and easy-going temperaments. Rockie is also no stranger to compassion, often being the first to reach out to cats in distress or to welcome newcomers with a comforting “Hi-Five, Paw-to-Paw” gesture.

Rockie is now five years old. Until recently, we had no reason to imagine that he would suddenly face a potentially life-threatening urinary emergency.

It began during a difficult period when several of our cats became unwell. Rockie, too, fell ill and eventually stopped eating. Concerned by his loss of appetite, we took him to the veterinarian, where he was prescribed an appetite stimulant.

Thankfully, he began eating again, and we thought he was on the road to recovery.

Then, not long afterwards, something else went wrong.