Rian’s Story

You’ve probably heard me call Rian our “miracle boy” many times. This is his story and why I call him that.

August 18, 2021: Our dear friend Rhonda comes over and says she wants to show us something. She hands me this tiny little scrap of a kitten and tells us she’ll be back to pick him up in a few hours.

August 19, 2021: Monty and I have decided to keep the kitten. We name him Rian River Phillips. He’s so little that he needs to be fed by hand. Because of my recent back surgery, Rhonda offers to foster Rian for us until I feel like I’m able to take over. She brings him over for a few hours a day so that we can get to know him.

August 25, 2021: Rian is officially ours—full-time!

September 5, 2021: Rian spends the day sleeping instead of playing. Monty and I notice that he seems to be having issues with balance when he walks.

September 6, 2021: Rian tries to stand up and collapses. He can’t walk and won’t eat or drink. We realize something is seriously wrong and take him to three different local vets, none of whom can figure out what’s wrong with him.

September 7, 2021: Rian is failing by the minute. We take him to an urgent care vet a couple of hours away. The vet tells us he probably has just hours left to live and tells us to get him to the CSU Veterinary Hospital right away. We spend eight hours in the parking lot of the hospital while Rian is admitted to the ICU for tests. At ten o’clock that night, his neurologist calls us in our car and says she still doesn’t know what’s wrong with Rian. She gives us two options: put him down or go “all in”—commit to extensive testing and anything else that might save him. We choose to go all in, but the neurologist warns us that because he’s so little (just 1.8 pounds) and weak, we need to be prepared for the likely possibility that he won’t make it. We leave Rian at the hospital and drive the two-and-a-half hours it takes to get home. The whole way home, I beg God for a miracle. As I look at Monty’s reflection in the dark windows, I know he’s doing the same. We’re both already so in love with our Rian.

September 8, 2021: Rian’s neurologist calls and tells us that they’ve found “something” on his spine. They don’t know what it is and need our permission to do surgery. We tell them to do it, and we’re told that surgery on a spine that small is very risky—Rian is weak and might not survive the surgery. We tell them to do it anyway. Later that night, the neurologist calls and says they found an abscess on Rian’s spine. They were able to drain it and scrape most of it off of his spine. He’s weak after surgery but holding his own.

September 10, 2021: We drive back to the CSU Vet Hospital to bring Rian home. A whole team of neurologists meets us and hands Rian to me. He cuddles up to me, wearing a flimsy little white T-shirt to keep his stitches covered. He also has a tube connected to his spine that is draining fluid from him. Monty and I are told to drain the fluid as needed, keep Rian’s stitches covered, and give him antibiotics twice a day. We’re also told to keep him still.

September 11, 2021: Rian doesn’t understand what “being still” means. He wants to play with his brothers. Within hours of bringing him home, his little T-shirt is in tatters. I order several shirts off of Amazon.

September 13, 2021: We go back to the CSU Vet Hospital, and Rian gets his drain taken out. When we get home, he decides he is no longer sick and refuses to be still. Monty and I do our best to keep him on our bed with his toys, but Rian is not happy about that and lets us know. The two of us are covered with scratches. I wear mine proudly, so grateful for the evidence that our boy is a fighter.

September 24, 2021: We drive back to the CSU Vet Hospital, and Rian gets his stitches out. We’re told that he seems to be healing well. We’re supposed to keep him on antibiotics and keep the site where his stitches were covered.

September 29, 2021: I throw a toy for Rian, and Monty and I watch as he runs to get it. He runs. If not for his T-shirts that cover the place where his stitches were, you wouldn’t know that he’d ever been sick.

October 6, 2021: Monty and I take Rian with us to Estes Park where our niece is getting married. He can’t be left alone because he has to take medicine twice a day. He explores every inch of our hotel room—happy and healthy.

October, November, and December, 2021: Rian learns to play with his brothers. He sleeps on my chest at night and “works” with Monty during the day. He sees his first Christmas tree and promptly tries to destroy it. He decides he no longer wants to wear T-shirts—we attempt to put one on him and he throws a huge tantrum. Monty and I are convinced that he’s completely healed, except that he still has to take medicine twice a day.

January 11, 2022: We go back to the CSU Vet Hospital for Rian to have his follow-up MRI. His neurologists say the abscess is gone and he’s “neurologically completely normal.” But his blood tests show chronic inflammation, so we continue with his twice daily medicine.

April 11, 2022: Rian has a checkup at CSU. The neurologist says he is “100% completely recovered” and no longer has to take any medicine. CSU officially discharges him as a patient and tells us he can see a regular vet from here on out. Monty and I drive away with Rian in his carrier in the back seat. We high five each other. We high five Rian. And later that night, as we watch him running and playing, (something we never thought we’d get to see him do, back on that dark September day), we thank God for the miracle that is Rian.