Is this not the most sweet precious little kitty?
So day after Memorial day I'm at home at my laptop and I hear a terrible cat screeching from outside the window. I run outside and my neighbor is pointing towards the trees/bushes on the North side of our house. I see this huge grey cat running away and my neighbor yells there is another cat in the bushes, which was sweet little September hiding under the hosta. I picked her up and carried her inside. Then I see I'm getting stuff all over my shirt and arms, she was so scared, she diarrhea'd on herself! :( So I took her to the sink and washed her belly and legs off. Then when she seemed more settled I brushed her fur since she's been shedding like crazy lately. And pretty much coddled and felt bad for her but that was the end of it I thought.
I go hang out with Liz and get home in the evening and Doug was petting her and we see blood on his hand and see that a big chunk is missing from her tail! How I did not notice earlier I'll never know!! And September had been totally normal eating and playing and wanting to go back outside. Anyway, we washed it off with soap in the sink and were worried because it looked bad. Of course by now it's 10pm and we both had to work in the morning.
The next day Doug's parents come get her and take her to the vet and mid-morning I get a text from Doug that they might have to amputate part of her tail off. I thought it was a mean joke, so called him, and he said he was sorry but not joking. So then I'm sitting at work crying about my poor baby. They said that they would first shave it, clean it, and then go from there. Meanwhile I'm back to work and one of my patients is reading a cat magazine (?!?) and asks me if I have a cat and I start crying again. Anyway. In the afternoon Doug called the vet to see what they were thinking and they said they bandaged it and she could come home on antibiotics with a re-check next week. But they couldn't guarantee she was out of the amputated-tail-woods yet.
So she came home.
Look at this sad little tail
(it looks broken here, but it's not really)
Actually she didn't seem to mind much at all. They said not to worry if she got the bandage off, which she did last night, and immediately started licking. So today was recheck #1. The vet assistant said it's looking good, to leave it open to air (which is not recommended for wound healing in human hospitals FYI), but we had to get her a cone so she wouldn't lick.
cone of sadness and frustration
eventually she was able to relax, but she seems depressed and is having a hard time getting to her food bowls
her tail wound does look pretty bad, but seems like could just scab up, no need to cut it off!!!
Monday will be recheck #2 and will be the deciding factor I think. Hopefully the antibiotics will be doing their job to prevent infection and the cone will be preventing unhelpful kitty interventions.
This has all made me realize how much I love that little gal. Doug and I know that her going outside does bring more risks to her, but she loves it so much and we decided when we adopted her that we wanted her to have a more full, altho possibly shorter, life. But now that stuff like this is happening it really seems more scary and I hope her life really won't be shorter! I don't know that she doesn't walk to other yards and is a bully herself to other cats she meets, but it seems extra sad this happened in her own yard. Poor little girl. Seems silly, but would appreciate healing prayers. Thanks!
Weight gained: 5lbs from pre-pregnancy
Cravings: Still fruit. Really wanting a chocolate milkshake lately. But have been drinking a lot of my "brownie batter smoothies" on post-weights exercise mornings. So good: almond milk/water, 1 frozen banana, tbs molasses, good shake of dark cocoa, and cup or so of frozen black beans (I don't use canned anymore, so make a batch in my pressure cooker and then freeze in a single layer and keep in a gallon bag in the freezer). Sounds weird, but lots of fiber and protein from the beans and super tasty.
Disturbingly I have lost almost any and all desire to cook (except bake the occasional cookie batch of course). So most dinners are a sad sandwich or something super easy. Hope to be back to that soon, just nothing sounds good ever.
Symptoms: Starting to feel a bit "uncomfortable" but nothing really. Weeks ago I was having this crazy dry scaly snake skin on my stomach despite multiple daily lotion latherings, luckily that seems to have subsided. Otherwise still feeling pretty normal.
Purchases: Nothing for the baby this week, but getting our registries ready for the baby shower and got some maternity clothes at Old Navy online. I'm still in my normal clothes, but think it will be soon. Since we don't shop at Target anymore (because of their very pro-gay agenda with profits going to support gay education in schools, and the whole transgender bathroom issue putting grown men in an unmonitored room with little girls , (you can sign the American Family Association boycott Target pledge here if this issue is important to you)) and I've been super impressed with the stuff Old Navy offers (online only, but easy and free returns). They had a great 50% off Memorial day sale so I stocked up on some late summer/early fall shirts.
Otherwise just living life. We had our anatomy scan follow up appointment and everything was on track, they started measuring my belly and I'm 20cms = 20wks so that was perfect and they said little boy looks great and on track. Yay!
I am somewhat worried about stress and it's effect on me lately. I'm really starting to regret my job move. Pretty bad day at work yesterday and no time to eat or pee (did take 10 min break at 10am) but then not again till 5:30. Then worked over till 8pm. It's been very hard to maintain a good attitude and attempt to care about my patients when I'm super overwhelmed with the time and tasks necessary to actually do that. And of course all at the same time. Came home and was really nice to see Doug had made us dinner (albeit frozen pizza, but with spinach!). Then I knocked over one of my favorite candles and cut my finger cleaning it up and was yelling about our messy house, and then of course crying. So it's nice to have a loving husband who hugs you when you stress cry, rubs your back, and spends the rest of his evening sitting and watching the Bachelorette with you.
Hopefully this job stress is just typical transitional stuff, but who knows. Been dreaming about going contingent more and more.
So, on to September kitty. Doug took her for her second check-up yesterday after he worked and the vet said her tail was looking good. She has to finish her antibiotics and wear the cone for 2 more weeks (!!!!!) and then have another re-check but looking promising.
The cone does prevent her from licking it, but presents other issues like spilling her food and knocking litter out of her litter box. Saturday night she knocked over some candle decoration thing I had on a shelf and then I sliced my foot on a big shard of glass I missed cleaning up. Oh well. Two more weeks and hopefully keeping her tail. Here's hoping things get better around here!
