Mia - The Little Miracle, this is the story of Mia the cat.

This is Mia a young two year old cat pictured here with a "lamp shade" to stop her scratching. Mia was booked with us to be transported from Denia Spain in the Costa Blanca to Lancashire UK on our trip back in 6th April 21.

The day before Mia was due to travel, the cattery based in Jesus Pobre called to say that they felt Mia was a bit unwell and that they were not sure if Mia was fit to travel. Mia was constantly sneezing and she had been to the vets the previous week and it was thought that she had an allergy, hence the sneezing.

Mia's owner Peter had travelled back to the UK a few days before Mia was due to travel and she was meant to be in the cattery for only 2-3 days before travel.

We decided to take Mia to the our vet in Denia and after a full examination, the vet advised that it was not an allergy and that unfortunately if was feared that young Mia could have a more serious condition, perhaps a tumour and that she should have an immediate biopsy done to see what the problem is. Mia's face was starting to swell up at the top of her nose.

We had to break the news to Mia's owner Peter that 1. Mia was poorly and not fit to travel and 2. Mia was in urgent need of a biopsy to ascertain what was wrong with Mia. Having broken the news to Peter he was understandable very concerned.

We arranged for the biopsy to be done at another specialist vets in Ondara. Once the vet had completed the biopsy and whilst the results of the biopsy would take around 7 days, he was of the opinion that Mia had Feline Aids and that this was why she was so poorly. We updated Mia's owner of the bad news and of course Peter was very concerned. We waited for seven days for the biopsy results and on day seven the results had still not been received.

In the meantime Mia's owner was coming to terms with the reality of Mia having Aids and the fact that she would never be able to travel back to the UK. Peter (Mia's owner) visited his own vet in the UK as he awaited the biopsy results and the UK vet confirmed that he would be unable to treat Mia even if she did arrive back in the UK due to the highly contagious nature of Feline Aids.

This was now becoming very distressing for Peter with the news that Mia can never be transferred to the UK and that his UK vet was refusing to treat her even if she somehow she did manage to get back to the UK.

We had to explain to Peter that as we are licensed animal transporters we would not be able to transport Mia to the UK as this would be against all rules and UK animal health and plant agency terms.

Following on from this latest update, Peter called us to advise that he had come to the conclusion and realisation that he was never going to see Mia again and that due to her poor quality of life and uncertain future that it would probably be best for Mia if she was put to sleep. This was a very sad point to reach and one that nobody had anticipated.

We advised Peter that we should wait another day or two and that we would make a few calls to see if we could come up with a cat rescue centre that could care for Mia with the full knowledge that she would not be able to mix with other cats and that her life would be quite contained, however we felt that this was worth considering rather than putting Mia to sleep. We called a number of cat rescue centres but were getting nowhere.

Biopsy Result

The result finally came through on day eight and this was when the miracle occurred! The vet that carried out the biopsy was 95% sure that Mia had Aids and that this would be confirmed via the biopsy result. Amazingly the result confirmed that Mia did not have Aids and that she has a bad infection due to a parasite bite and this was what was causing the swelling and the constant sneezing. Well you can imagine the joy when this news came through. We had started this emotional journey with a possible allergy to a possible tumour moving on to Feline Aids to eventually having confirmation that all was due to a parasite bite.

Close Call

We had the absolute pleasure of calling Mia's owner Peter to give him the miracle news that Mia was going to be ok and that she would be fit to travel in around three weeks after a course of treatment was completed. Peter was overwhelmed with emotion and relief once he heard the news and he could not believe that his Mia was going to survive and be reunited with him in a number of weeks.

Fast Forward to 22nd May 2021

The day has come when we arrived at Peters home address in the UK having left Denia two days before with Mia on her miracle journey back home to be with her owner. Tito our driver had the pleasure of knocking on Peters door at 9am this morning with Mia in her carrier. Peter was finally reunited with his Mia and to say he was happy would be an understatement.

A very happy ending to a real rollercoaster of a situation where Mia the cat was a day from the real possibility of being let go to Pet Heaven.

Here's to Mia and Peter and to many happy years !

Many thanks to the following :

* Ingrid, Sue and Mel at Casa Antigua Jesus Pobre

* Arnau, Vet from Veterinario Denia