Sweetpea...what happened?

Today ended up to be a terrible day. It was a day of shock and sadness. I'm still not sure what happened It all started out with a phone call from my mom about her cat, Sweetpea. My mom and I got both of our cats (Sweetpea and Furby) in early March, they were 7 and 8 months old. When my mom called she asked me if I thought it was possible for a cats legs to go to sleep. Sweetpea's legs had been "twitching" since she had jumped out of the bathroom sink a few minutes earlier and she was meowing. For some reason, cats like to lay in the sink. I think it's because it's cool. The only problem, our cats are rather large even though they are young. My mom thought that since Sweetpea might have been cramped in the sink, that might be the reason. I told her that I thought it might be possible, but to watch her and let me know if anything changed. About 5-10 minutes later she called again to tell me that now Sweetpea wasn't using her back legs. I had her call the vet and he agreed to meet us at his office (it was after hours).

I picked them both up and we headed to the vet. Sweetpea was meowing but I figured she was upset because (1) she was in her carrier and (2) we were going in the car. It was a few miles down the road and I thought I heard her vomit. Again, I figured it was because she was so upset...she had been meowing the whole time. I heard her do that several times, with the last time just minutes before we got to the vets. Once we got there, I opened the carrier to see if she was covered in vomit. When I looked at her, I knew she wasn't breathing. I told my mom, "I think she's gone" and she asked me what I meant. I said "I think she's gone". Just then Dr. Sartain arrived and we went inside. I told him that I didn't think she was breathing and he verified it. My mom and I stared at each other in shock. How could this have happened? What caused it? The doctor asked if she could have gotten to a plant but my mom doesn't have any inside. Then he asked if she had been outside at all (thinking that possibly she had gotten bitten by a poisonous snake) but we told him that she was strictly an indoor cat and had never been outside. He did mention a blot clot, said he'd been thinking about it as he was driving over, but he felt that the sudden onset of her symptoms pointed more to poisoning of some kind. We left there not knowing exactly what happened except that Sweetpea was gone and we were leaving without her.

Once we got back to my mom's I looked around for anything that Sweetpea could have gotten into, even checking to see if there was anything wet on the floor that might have spilled and she could have gotten into. There was nothing there. I didn't see any signs of anything that she had eaten. I didn't find anything wet or dry. There was nothing open on the counters or the floor. When I got back to the motorhome I did some quick research on the internet and I personally think she might have had Cardiomyopathy. It's a heart disease that cats can have. Unfortunately, Ragdolls are sometimes more prone to it than others. There are more symptoms that Sweetpea didn't have, but the major one, the weakness in her back legs, is often one of the most critical...and the most likely to cause sudden death.

Since Sweetpea and Furby are related (by their grandfather), I'm thinking I'd like to have him tested to make sure this doesn't happen to him. Even though we haven't had them for years, they quickly capture a place in your heart and become members of your family. I know that my mom will miss Sweetpea! Every time I went to my mom's, Sweetpea was the first to greet me at the door and always expected me to pet her and play with her! She will be greatly missed.