Another $100 Invested in the Tail That is No More

Friday afternoon, my husband got home from work to find Chatter had gotten his collar off and pulled out a couple of stitches, leaving his wound open on the corner and looking like an oozing jelly donut. I was hoping he was exaggerating, but when I got home, I conceded we had to go back to Lakeside. Another $100 to have him restitched. At least these stitches look tighter. And he got a plastic cone and some painkiller liquid.

The plastic cone keeps him from opening his mouth, it is so tight. When he got home, he squatted in front of the food bowl, his plastic cone sitting in the food, but there was no way he could position himself to actually reach food or even open his mouth. We took it off.

A little while later, the vet called and asked how things were going, even though we had just been home a little while. I told her about the cone and food problem. "Oh yeah, you can take it off for him to eat."

Actually, he hasn't worn it since. Even my husband thinks it is too harsh and has him back in the soft cone. We are going to find some Velcro somewhere and try to redesign it so at least he can open his mouth.

The $1,000 Tail

Chatterbox lost his tail. It's a long story I might save for the book, but we had to rush him to Carytown Emergency Vet at midnight because his tail was literally hanging by what appeared to be a white thread. How did we go so wrong with the wound care? If the vet assistant at Lakeside hadn't nicked his tail when she was shaving it, would this have happened? We picked him up the next morning at 6:30 a.m., with just an inch-long stub left of his lovely tail. He has to wear the damn collar until the stitches are out. He wants to pull the stitches out himself, so this time we have to be strong and keep it on.

The bill was $650. Ouch. Ouch. Add to that the several previous bills and money spent on bandages and ointments, and we've got a thousand invested in a tail we lost. (Look at the picture. The tail seemed to be doing okay. How did we go from this to no tail at all?)

Did you see the woman on "Dr. Phil" today with 200 cats? At least she had 10 acres and was getting them all neutered, but still the neighbors are mad. Dr. Phil said she had to find homes for those cats, but I could tell the very idea of it was killing her. She knew all their names. I bet she doesn't part with them. We never do.

Cats Abound at Grey Gardens

I just watched the documentary "Grey Gardens" about Jackie Kennedy's crazy relatives in their run-down house, and it wasn't about their cats, it was just about being crazy, but there were a lot of cats around. Craziness and cats seem to go together.