Today I had quite a scare. I had stayed up all night, and when I finally did get to sleep, I slept until noon. I was awakened by the sound of a horrible cat fight. I got out of bed, and my biggest most aggressive tom cats form outside was in the house. He had Abby cornered, and was attacking her. I got out of bed, and he ran out the back door, which was wide open. I have no idea how it got open (keep in mind I'm still half asleep at this time). I went to looked outside to see Merlin outside under the grill, looking up at me with the most confused expression. I called him, but he didn't budge, so I shut the door so the other cats couldn't get outside (or inside), and went to get him. He must have been really scared, because when I picked him up, he growled and fought to get away. Of course, I couldn't let him go. Where would he have gone. Anyway, when I tried to take him back in, the back door was locked. grrr!!
So there I was standing in the back yard in just a t-shirt and undies, holding an angry squirming cat. Luckily, I had set a couple of pet taxis outside, and put some blankets in them, so the cats would have somewhere warm to go during the colder months. So I put Merlin into one, wrapped the blanket around me, and went to the neighbor's house to call my husband. He gets off work around noon, but they are in the process of moving to a new building, so he's been working later.
So everything, nerve racking as it was, turned out ok...right? Wrong! I checked on Abby, who was hidden under the bed. She looked fine, and she's my shy one, so it's not at all unusual for her to hide when she's had a scare. She always comes strolling out later for her share of the attention. We had some shopping (would you believe for cat food lol) to do, and I still hadn't gone to my dad's to give Onyx (his dog) his daily dose of arthritis meds. When we got back home, sure enough, Abby was out. She looked up at me and meowed, just like she always does. Then she started to walk into the other room. She started hissing and growling with each step. When Annie and Merlin over to her, she hissed and swatted at them both. I was shocked. She's a bit of a loner, but she's not mean. I reached out to pet her, and when my hand got closer to her hip area, she growled and snapped at me. I was terrified, because I knew the only thing that could have happened was that the tom cat must have hurt her. I called my vet, told them what happened, and asked if there was anyway he could see her today.
We took her in to see him, and he looked her over, and found the teeth marks where she had been bitten by that tom. He took her temp and it was 103. Can you imagine. All this since noon. He gave her three shots-one for pain, one for her fever, and one to fight any infection she may have gotten. I also may have to take her back in a month to see if she has feline leukemia from this. Since she's an indoor only cat, I haven't had her vaccinated for that. She's has all her other shots, just not that one.
What a day!!
So if you could please say a prayer for my baby, I'd really appreciate it...and maybe spare one for me. I'm a wreck.
edited because of spelling errors.
This message was edited Dec 10, 2004 8:59 PM
