Got home from campaign office to find bathroom full of feathers. When the human is away, the cat will play.
I had an adventure going on the last couple of days. Mikasa is a 1-year-old tabby. An elderly lady showed up at my door one morning and asked if I knew of anyone that would take Meek and her brother and sister. Before I could answer, the lady asked "Could you take them?" I really wasn't looking to add more cats to the household at the time, but I knew she was desperate and how can anyone with a soul turn them away, so I took them in. On Friday morning, Mikasa didn't come home to eat. Usually she comes in a little after dark. I went over my property filling the feed stations for the strays and other animals and called for her. I heard a meow back to me in the woods. There, 40 feet up in the crook in a walnut tree I'd just discovered on the corner of my property and my neighbor's, was Meek. It was the last branch on a tree that was at least 70 feet high. I couldn't coax her down. On Saturday morning, we had two fire companies in trying to get her, but only one had a ladder nearly high enough. The EMT managed to get close enough to grab her by the tail but she scratched his neck and he loosened his grip and she ran up another 10 feet. The fire companies didn't have any other answers and left, except for these two young ones from the local fire company that doesn't even send a ladder truck because they can't handle something like this. Them and a couple of friends and my neighbor cut the walnut tree so that it fell into two pine trees about 20 feet away, forming a triangle with the ground. I was so happy to find that walnut tree a couple of months ago because I always wanted one on my property and didn't realize there was one right there, but there wasn't an option, and there really wasn't a choice. Meek still wouldn't come down. In fact, she went even higher, going between the pines and the fallen walnut. The two young EMTs called me and asked if we could go visit Meek in the tree at 11:30 last night to see if we could come up with a plan, so I met them and the one girl tried to climb the tree until I told her not to. They said they'd come up with something and be back in the morning. I got up this morning not expecting to find Mikasa alive. She had been meowing loudly the first day and a half, but the previous night it was pretty weak. But I called for her and she answered. I figured I'd tell the EMTs she was still alive so we could cut down the pine trees. I talked to Meek and tapped the palms of my hands on the trunk of the fallen walnut tree. Meek looked down at me and then she came to the first crook in the walnut, then the next one down, then the bottom one, and finally shuffled down and jumped the last 5 feet. She didn't let me pick her up at first, looking for another adventure, but I grabbed her and held her tight and took her home. She ate voraciously but now is running all over the house and wants back out. This wasn't the first thing with her this year. In the last week of July, she had an accident with a swinging door and had seizures. I took her to the animal hospital and they said the brain damage was too severe and they'd probably have to put her to sleep. I asked if I could stay with her a few hours that night. At first, I had no hope, she was like an invalid, but then she ate for me and recovered and came home three days later, although she has a neurologic issue and her head is still crooked to this day. Six weeks after that, she disappeared. I spent two weeks walking and running all over the township looking for her. That's when I found the walnut tree, actually. Then one morning she was waiting at the door. Crazy cat.
Lashanna has a little scratch on her face yesterday. No big deal. Until evening when the whole side of her face puffed up. On Christmas, everything closed. Up half the night worried. Called emergency vet, said don't have to go there middle of the night but bring her first thing in morning.
After almost no sleep I was up and dressed at 4:30 AM to take Lashanna to emergency clinic. Her face looked much better, very little swelling. When I touched her gently she flinched but yesterday I couldn't touch at all. I called her regular vet when they opened at 8. They had a cancellation today but I had lunch reservations and ballet tickets. Had her condition been life threatening I would have skipped. I decided to keep plans since she was improving. Tomorrow I bring her to a drop off appointment. There are no openings so I drop her off at 8 and doctor will take a look when she can squeeze it in. By chance I have 9:30 medical appointment nearby so she can stay there while I see my doctor. She had pulled the hair off and there is a nasty wound. The scratch was all I could see over her fur. Thought of cleaning with hydrogen peroxide but don't know if it's safe for cats and she is cleaning it herself. Expect vet will disinfect and maybe give her penicillin and/or tetanus shot. This evening she is looking better. Ate all her food and getting into mischief. While I am very relieved she is improving what she put me through, up all night. Cats!
Vet said Lashanna got a puncture wound about a week ago. It would be hardly visible but bacteria kept growing. She saw only one wound so most likely from another cat's claw, possibly bird with sharp beak. A rodent bite would show two punctures. She cleaned it out. I have to give Lashanna daily antibiotics for 10 days and she has to wear a huge collar for a week to keep her from rubbing or scratching the wound. It looks terribly uncomfortable. She keeps trying to get it off. It hurts seeing her so uncomfortable and can't fix it. $359
Took collar off briefly so Lashanna could eat and wash, neither of which she can do with collar. She was so happy to be freed she kept purring and rubbing her face against me. Felt like Judas putting it back on. Not sure which of us is having a harder time. She can't understand why I am doing this. I looked at raw wound on her face when tempted to say oh fuck it. A week of this?
Lashanna is healing up nicely. Asked vet if OK to put Bacitracin ointment on her injury. She said fine. I started letting her have brief runs outside and she got into it with another cat. Brought her inside, she doesn't need another injury.
Last spring, this big, white male with some gray and black tabby splotches randomly on his coat starting showing up here. It only took about a month for him to come into the house and make himself part of the family with the other cats. I named him Ghost. He was huge and strong, maybe the strongest cat I ever had. He was so friendly to me and people in general. He made the funniest cooing, purring noises and would stay with me as I exercised. At nights, he slept on my feet and no matter how I moved he stayed there and found a way to get comfortable without disturbing me. He asserted dominance on some of the other cats from time to time at first, but he'd been getting a lot better the last month. Such a handsome boy, too. Always so clean. Two mornings ago, I called him for breakfast but he didn't show up. He occasionally went out early in the morning, and every once in a while he might come back more toward noon. But I looked and found him in this cat carrier we've placed by the door, curled up and not paying attention to me. He had what looked like blood on his back but there weren't any wounds on him that I could find. I brought him into the house and he ate fine. He slept with me as usual last night, finding a spot somewhere else just before I woke up to feed him and the rest of his family. It was unusual, though, where I found him. It just felt off. Nothing in particular, but it felt off. He didn't eat his canned food this morning. He just went and lay by the heater on his stomach, his whiskers twitching as they touched the rug. I came home from work and found him sitting on the other side of the room. He looked alert and I thought maybe it was just that he wasn't feeling well this morning. When he tried to come to me, though, he collapsed. I took him, put him in bed, and put a heating pad on him. I tried to give him some water, then some gravy after he wasn't interested in other food, but he wouldn't even open his mouth at all. Mikasa came and gave him a kiss. Then he tried to get up, so I picked up up and put him on the floor gently in front of the heater. I gave him a kiss, too, and made the sign of the cross on him and prayed to God for about the 12th time today to give him another chance or to take him quickly and painlessly. It looks like God chose the latter. He just seems to be falling asleep a few feet from where I'm writing this, getting cold, getting stiff. Rest well, Big Goats. I wish we had more time together. You were a joy to have around, and I hope you know you were and always will be loved.
