For real this time:
Full story: The Assassin had been fighting. We have seen a little black cat going around the place, so we think she might have been seeing off the intruder. She was walking with a limp and holding her paw up. GS caught her and I tried to see if there was an obvious cause for the lameness: there was no heat in the leg, no obvious cuts, lumps or blood, except I found a jaggy white thing in her fur which I pulled out. Which we now know was a claw.
Mystified, and thinking it might be a sprain, we left it for another day to see if it got better. The next day, GS contacted me at work to say he thought she was getting worse. If you can catch her and put her in a cat carrier, I will take her to the vet”, I said. A few hours later, I received a text, which simply said, “done”. I wondered how much blood GS had lost getting the Assassin into the carrier.
Arriving home, I phoned the vet to give them advance warning that we were bringing in a semi-feral, grumpy cat called the Assassin. I could sense the vet nurse tensing as she took the call. GS by this time had to gaffa tape the cat carrier shut as said grumpy cat kept making attempts at breaking out. We placed the shaking receptacle in the boot of my car and we set off to the vets’ surgery. The Assassin howled the entire way. I was somewhere between annoyed at the sound and sorry for the pitiful songs she was singing.
At the vet, we had to wait as an emergency came in, it was a poodle that had had an accident whilst out on a walk. The Assassin kept mewing pitifully. Eventually, the surgery was clear and Heather the vet came to collect the noisy cat. Three of them went in to help. In a short time, Heather returned, she was not used to being sworn at in cat language, but the Assassin seemed to know they were helping her and forbore scratching them to bits. (Aside, she doesn’t pull any punches with us when we are trying to administer wormer and flea meds.)
Heather told us it was a puncture wound that had become infected. To keep costs down, she asked if we wanted to administer antibiotic pills twice a day for fourteen days. I said I might be successful the first time, but didn’t rate my chances for the next 27. Heather then offered an injection of antibiotic, so relieved, we said, “oh yes please!”
Ten minutes later, the Assassin had her wound treated, antibiotics and painkillers and was wrapped in a cozy towel and back in the cat carrier. She was a lot quieter. The vets were very relieved to have no scratches or damage and were chuckling at having successfully treated an Assassin. She now has a medical record with them under the name Assassin Smallholder. Anyway, the vets asked if we could keep her in at least overnight to keep the wound clean and let her recover from her ordeal.
And that’s the story of why we had to lock up the Assassin for fighting. Don’t resort to fighting dear readers, violence is never the answer.
Leaves me with a wee problem, the cats are due to be wormed soon and I don’t think I’ll get near her….
The Geordie Smallholder 