Between worlds: observations of a semi-feral boy

Lesson learned

I learned something furry important this past week. It's something I should have learned earlier, but I guess it's better late than never.

You should never, EVER, bite your Mama. In addition to hurting her hand so she can't do stuff like brush you and pick you up for a few days, it makes you sick!

See, Tuesday night last week I was stalking Leo, and Mama told me NO, and I didn't want to pay attention, and she reached over and scruffed me without her Cow!Cat Taming Gloves(tm) on. I put up with that for a few seconds, then decided I'd had enough and twisted around and bit her hand. Again. *is mortified*

She didn't think it was so bad, so she washed it and patched it up with Neosporin and a big band-aid, and just dealt with having a sore hand through Wednesday. But by Thursday her hand was red and swelling, so she went to see her vet, and he gave her some pills to take and told her that when a cat bites a purrson they should always, ALWAYS go to their vet, because the wound WILL get infected. No "wait and see". No "it doesn't look so bad". Just. Do. It!

But what he didn't tell her was, the cat has to go to its own vet, too, because BITING MAMAS MAKES CATS SICK!

See, that same Thursday my eye started being runny and goopy again, and Daddy started cleaning up my face with tissues and warm water. By Saturday I was feeling pretty punky, just laying around the house most of the day, not interested in eating, and my eye looked all mucusy and sore - Mama says it's the worst she's ever seen it. She also thought I felt too warm, and by Sunday night I was even drooling a little. Mama was very solicitous of me all weekend, making me tuna soup like she does for Thomas to try to get some fluids in me. That was a nice bonus.

Monday she called the vet, and then she took me there, and he did AWFUL things to me against my will, and decided I had to stay because I had a fever and he wanted to do bloodwork and examine my eye more closely to see if there was any "foreign object" in it, or an old injury that hadn't healed, or anything else that might be causing the recurrent goopiness. So it was another couple of days in hospital for the Cow!Cat. I had a bath, and slept a good deal, and ate food, and was told I was a very very well-behaved boy. I also got a basically clean bill of health - no problems with my bloodwork, no infected battle scars or anything like that, just conjunctivitis and "salivation and fever of unspecified origin". Well, ha! I know the origin! It's because I was bad and bit Mama and got infection from her!

Now I'm home with eye drops, which are horrible and I don't like them and I shut my eyes tight against them; and antibiotic drops, which I like a great deal more because, as you know if you've done your back reading, antibiotic drops means TUNA TWICE A DAY. Yum! I also have a muzzle that Mama puts on me, so I don't rip off her or Daddy's arm while he holds me and she tries to get the drops in my eyes.

But I think maybe I've learned my lesson about that. I should never, EVER bite Mama. Obviously it's very unhealthy - for both her and me!

I really, really hope I remember that. I think Mama hopes the same.

(Note from Mama: Cow!Cat's vet bills for the past year are more than the other 4 cats' combined. Sigh.)