Little Girl, aka StinkerBelle, the Toe Biter, almost died. 

This sweet little cat started out as a temporary visitor when one of the strays (Spike) I feed brought her along for dinner one night. She obviously liked her meal because I saw her almost daily after that for about 2 months 

One day when Chuck was on his way to a meeting, there she was standing on the porch, waiting for help.  She was weak, dull-eyed and listless; she came to us for help. Chuck handed her to me and said it's time to bring her inside.  I took her to the bathroom to separate her from the rest (no telling what she was ill with) and checked on her hourly for the rest of the night.  She got steadily worse; by midnight I was worried...by 2AM I knew she'd not live  till morning.

We found a 24hour emergency clinic and rushed her over to be seen by the veterinary on duty.  She was having difficulty breathing, and had a fever of 105. By 3AM she was on IV and having antibiotics and we left her till "morning" when we could come back and take her to our regular doctor, where she'd get TLC without it costing a paw and tail. 

We moved her, towel wrapped IV bag and all - and by 10AM she was settled in her hospital cage at Dr. Clark's where she stayed for the next two weeks.  All the tests proved negative - nothing contagious, at least! - but she'd gotten an infestation from a bite from a bot fly.  Surgery was necessary to remove the eggs and when that was done she started to improve steadily.

I brought her home on August 2nd and though she's still terribly weak and thin (she's all whiskers and ears), she's improving by the hour. I feed her lots of little meals and give her her medication and I have faith she'll be all healed soon and back to her normal weight.  She's got a way to go to grow into those ears, though!

Now two years later she's a beautiful, quiet little cat.  She's timid, and doesn't get along with the other female  cat in the house (Squeaky) so mostly she stays in the "quiet room" with Jackie and Sam. It's taken a long time to earn her trust, but not long ago she snuggled up close to me one morning and while I was stroking her under the chin and behind the ears she purred for the first time.  I cried. She finally happy and knows she's loved and safe.