MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

A Near Cat-astrophe

Christmas Day night. We've been through it all, the weeks of shopping and prep, which always turns out to be too much even though I try every year to simplify. The wrapping of many gifts, made easier by the "wrapping station" DH set up in our attic bedroom and the many gift bags we re-use. The tree, bought and decorated. The Christmas letter/cards sent out, 60-some, something I was determined to do since we haven't sent one out in probably 5 years. The Christmas Eve feast (for just our family of 5) of shrimp scampi and some king crab legs. Our Xmas Eve evening of watching "A Miracle on 34th Street" (my choice) and then going to the 11 pm service at our Unitarian Universalist church. Xmas morning with all the gift opening and the joy of that. And the Xmas Day afternoon spent with my family (we'll do DH's family later this week), feasting and spending time together. It was good, but always is emotionally complicated, dealing with family stuff, and now I'm tired.

But this morning, we had our near cat-astrophe with our 4-month old kitty Jinx. It was a horrible moment that fortunately turned out okay. I had stopped at Petco for presents to fill his stocking for this morning-- catnip bubbles, 2 toys, and a collar for him with a little engraved tag that said his name and our phone number. Even though he is an indoors cat, I thought that he should have a collar and tag in case he ever escaped outside. I picked out a pretty red collar that claimed to be especially safe, with a catch that would release if the animal ever got caught on something. So this morning, DH put the collar on Jinx and we all admired it. And then we locked him in the basement.

For some reason, Jinx has developed extremely noxious farts over the past few days. Room-clearing silent gas. We don't know if he's been getting into some food, or eating pine needles or drinking piny water from the Xmas tree. Whatever it is, his farts are hard to take. So, in the middle of our gift opening, he stunk up the room and so we put him downstairs and locked the cat door so we could open our gifts in peace.

About an hour later, I went to the basement door and opened the door, and he was pitifully mewing, a different kind of mew, and then I saw the blood. Jinx stumbled up the top step and I saw blood smears all over the top part of the floor where the door shuts. He was limping and there was blood on his face and he looked in pain. "Jinx is hurt!" I called, feeling frightened. Older DS came first and he said, "It looks like his jaw is broken!" It was hard to see just what was wrong with him, but it had something to do with the collar-- and DS said something about the collar being stuck in his mouth, and I had this horrid feeling of lightheadedness as I imagined that he had somehow half-way swallowed his new collar.

Because he was in pain and skittish, it was hard to hold onto him to see what was wrong. He seemed to be bleeding from his paw and bleeding from his mouth, and I wondered if he'd managed to get caught and cut himself deeply. DH got a scissors and managed to cut off the collar. Time seemed to slow down and I felt that panic and fear I've felt when my kids broke their arms when they were little... where your mind searches for what you need to do and your brain is in a little fog.

I did find the numbers for the emergency vet in case we needed it and then we calmed down enough to asses the dammage. He seemed to be able to walk okay, though he'd sometimes shake one of his front paws after taking a step. He was bleeding from his paw and by his mouth, but it seemed to have stopped. We found blood on a pillow downstairs on the couch, where he was probably resting. Our guess is that he tried to get this dumb collar off with his paw, got his paw stuck and then pulled and pulled until it was around his mouth, rubbling raw his paw and his mouth. We wiped up his blood and cleaned him up and he seems to be much better. He's getting extra petting today!

What was the worst was that one moment when we all looked at this poor little bloody creature, obviously injured, and we didn't know how bad. It was such a helpless feeling, and I immediately panicked and thought, "Is he dying? What do you do with a dying pet?" It was such a sickening feeling, of not knowing how to help.

So, all in all, our cat-astrophe was pretty minor, but it made me grateful. Grateful the kitty seems to be healing, and grateful that I've never had to go through anything too horrifying with my kids or DH. I can only imagine how those feelings I had this morning for our cat would be multiplied for my family.

And I'm goint to return the damn malfunctioning collar to the store-- the blood on it should say it all!