[Yeah, okay, so not everyone cares that my cat has a sore on his leg. I do. I'm obsessed. I can think of nothing else. Sorry. Waste may be the only other person who cares enough to read all of this, but whatever. I'm obsessed.]
Poor kitty. Poor kitty wants to go outside. Poor kitty wishes I wouldn't insist on wrapping his whole body less one leg in a towel and washing his sore with antibacterial soap. Poor kitty woke up this morning to an empty food bowl only to learn when The Girl returned that the pet store doesn't open until ten am.
I feel so bad for my cat. He doesn't appear to be in pain anymore. It's no longer swollen. He's running around the house like a caged animal (which he is at this point). I sit in the living room and watch him climb all over the furniture. I sit in my little computer closet and watch him climb all over the desk, the shelf, the pile of blankets (which he feels is obviously his computer room cat bed), me, my chair, and the moniter. I just typed all of that while he hit each of those spots.
So, I have been doing nice things for my kitten. I mean, aside from mummifying him and rinsing his one leg. And actually, that went better than one would expect. Cause see, I wasn't sure how I was going to manage to just get one of his legs wet. Now, baths don't bother the cat. He's pretty chill about getting a bath. But, that's when he's not hurt. I mean, I wanted to take his injured leg and run it under warm water and then put soap in the wound and then get the soap out.
And, as anyone who has bathed a cat knows, it's the rinsing that's the hard part. Getting any cat wet is doable. Getting the wet cat soapy is manageable. Getting the injured, wet, soapy cat near the water again? I wasn't so confident about. Getting the injured, wet, soapy cat thoroughly rinsed? It was going to have to happen but I didn't know just how.
My cat is a doll. He is a very pleasant, non neurotic ball of orange fur. I just walked up to him and carried him to the sink. While I was waiting for the water to get to a reasonable temperature, I discovered that he wasn't crazy about this "Let me hold your sore leg and get just it in the stream of this water" plan. He voiced his concerns by struggling in my arms.
I put him down and grabbed a towel. I wrapped him firmly in the towel, leaving only his head and one leg exposed. He sat very nicely and did not struggle while I cleaned and dried his wound. He's such a nice cat. I think maybe the rinsing felt good or maybe he's just that trusting, because when it came time to rinse, he seemed to want to hold his paw in there a little longer. He does love water though. So, I let him splash his one free paw in the sink a bit.
Once he was clean and dry, I let him go.
I've bought him some stuff to help the process of convelescing... I mean, he brought me a dead bird when I had the flu, so it's the least I can do. A new, bigger, furrier mouse than he's ever had. A bag of premium catnip. Canned food. Dry food. Cleaned and disinfected the litterbox. He was pretty pleased with all his junk.... I know that is isn't going to make the sore go away, but it will make keeping him in the house maybe a little less horrible.
I am watching the sore like a hawk. I even checked out an Animal First Aid book while I was in the pet store. I learned that I am supposed to give it three days to scab up and if it gets larger than a quarter, then I take him to the vet. Also, washing it with antibacterial soap is the way to go. They also advocated shaving around the sore. I understand why, but I don't know if I am mentally prepared to shave a cat's leg when I can't even do my own without inflicting serious damage. Plus, he's already licked off most of the surrounding hair.
I have faith in nature and the animal kingdom. He's going to be okay. And at the first sign that this is not the case, we're on our way to the vet. In the meantime, I keep warning people not to look at it if they're squeamish....
