Heidi was fairly stable and hadn’t shown any clinical decline in the few months she had been in foster care, but her wrists continued to knuckle and she couldn’t walk or weight bare properly. In November 2020 my vet told me about Heidi and asked if I would be able to help her. I went to visit Heidi in her lovely foster home to assess her, and subsequently went on to make splints for her front legs, and a wheelchair walker to help with her physiotherapy. After Meeting her and realising the level of ongoing care and support she would need, and in that moment falling totally in love Heidi, I knew we had to adopt her.

Heidi came home with us on 26th December 2020, and Heidi’s Courageous Cat Foundation was born.

Heidi not only had cerebellum issues that were similar to cerebellar hypoplasia, but her front wrists knuckled inwards so she was unable to walk unaided. We later found out through Xrays that she also had curvature of the spine and windpipe. We initially did daily physiotherapy with Heidi for the first 18/24 months using her walker frame and splints, but sadly this did not significantly improve Heidi’s ability to move around and she didn’t particularly enjoy it so we stopped using her walker in 2022. Over the course of those first few years we also tried EMS therapy, acupuncture and hydrotherapy, but none of these made any positive change to her ability.

In early 2021 Heidi was spayed, and our vet Rosie had found that she was quite deformed internally, she only had one uterine horn. Around 12 months later Heidi started to have seizures, and suddenly went into what seemed like a `heat`.  After speaking with our vet we decided to wait and see if she had a second heat before doing exploratory surgery. Around the same time Heidi started having seizures aswell, about once a month.

4 weeks later Heidi displayed that second heat, so we then knew that the spay hadn’t quite gone to plan, and arranged for an exploratory operation to be performed. On the day of surgery we found that her missing uterine horn had developed and was fully functioning! Our vet had never seen this before and was very very unusual. She had this removed, but while under sedation, after having a good check over internally, we also found that she had hydronephrosis of her left kidney. The kidney was a giant cyst full of water, not functioning and could have burst and killed her at any moment. She underwent emergency surgery to remove it right there and then. We hoped that the seizures she`d been having were due to this kidney issue, but sadly Heidi continued to have them. Fortunately the seizures were very infrequent so long term medication wasn’t necessary and we supported her epilepsy with homeopathy and CBD oil.

Heidi continued to be stable, healthy and very much enjoyed her pampered life at the sanctuary. She loved to play, snooze, cuddle and really enjoyed her food. We started doing lots of fundraising events  together to raise awareness of special needs cats and help raise funds for Heidi’s care and to support other rescues, her social media grew and she became a much loved feline celebrity. Her comprehensive needs and daily support to eat and toilet as she couldn’t walk or stand up were met by us 24/7 365 days of the year, and we loved taking care of her.

We sustained Heidi’s wellbeing with supplements and homeopathy to support her kidney function, joint health and epilepsy along with the optimal nourishment of her natural raw diet whilst providing her with the stimulation and support she needs to live a fulfilled life.

In November 2025 Heidi started coughing intermittently, and after having Xrays done and a swab of her lungs we found she had a Mycoplasma bacterial infection. We started herbal support and antibiotic treatment along with daily nebulisation treatments. Her cough subsided and she continued to be her usual self for months to come. As soon as we would stop the nebulising though, the cough would return, so we continued with it through the winter. As she was recumbent most of the time, and never really got her cardiovascular system fired up from exercise, it was difficult for Heidi to expel mucous and being lay down all the time didn’t do her respiratory system good. Although we regularly sat her up with supportive cushions and turned her every hour or so as part of her daily routine, it wasn’t going to help her cough anything up substantially.

We decided in Spring 2026 to try another round of a different antibiotic to see if we could rid her of the intermittent cough, and by now, she was still quite well and it didn’t really affect her daily life at all.

In April 2026 Heidi was happy and well and on the 28th April she celebrated her 6th birthday, which was an absolute milestone for a cat with such disabilities and troubles.

Sadly this was to be her last birthday with us, and in May 2026 she declined rapidly within a matter of weeks. She became quite tired, more so than usual, and slept even more than usual and her breathing just seemed a little off. She was very warm in herself, and usually she was a cold cat, and she would always breathe quite shallow anyway, but it seemed more effort for her. I knew something wasn’t quite right, but it was subtle to anyone who didn’t know her like we did. After all, she was still eating well and alert in herself, but i took her to our vet for a check up.

We did another Xray and found that sadly her lungs had quite alot of clinical change compared to those in November, and there was fluid present in the pleural cavity. Heidi was diagnosed with chylothorax, a rare condition where the fluid from the lymphatic system leaks into the pleural lining between the lungs and outer wall, making it hard to breathe. The prognosis of this condition is not good, we were devastated.

She had her chest fluid drained, there was only a small amount present which was good news. Over the coming weeks we purchased an oxygen concentrator machine, a wobble board to help get her recumbent little body stimulated and moving in the hope that we could get her circulation going and heart rate up a bit to help flush everything. She was having chest percussion and lots of herbal treatments along with homeopathy and a daily diuretic. But sadly she deteriorated and despite our best efforts, she stopped eating and within 48 hours she had passed asway in my arms at home.

The loss of our beautiful girl Heidi hit us incredibly hard, she was our whole life, and we were hers. Her courage, love and huge personality was so inspirational. Because of her we have rescued and rehabilitated so many more special needs cats that would have otherwise been euthanised. She taught us so much, gave us so much love, and inspired so many others with her story and her bravery.

HCCF was born and will continue to live on in Heidi’s name, its her legacy.

Heidi, courageous by name, courageous by nature