The Cat with a Coat

 Did you know we have a cat now?  Yup, an orange one.  She waltzed into the living room one day before the dogs went on to that great beyond of doggie heaven or wherever it is that dogs go for the afterlife.  Uncle Byron  probably says, "in the ground."

 Anyway, the dogs were not feeling real swift and when the cat just walked right in the front door, they were a little shocked and not moving fast.  Tiny lifted up her head from the chair she was lying on and gave a little growl.  Girl did stand up and growled but didn't run after the cat.  Uncle Byron picked it up and put in on his lap.  The cat purred and purred and purred. 

We weren't quite sure what to do.  We weren't really thinking about getting a cat, our dogs were on their last legs, but the cat just kept coming back.  So we gave it some dog food.  It would hang around every day for a bit, but I kicked it out the door at night since the dogs were sleeping inside.  Every morning it would show back up!

 So I decided to give it a bath and a flea collar.  It made Uncle Byron a little less sad when the dogs were gone.  He decided if it was going to stick around and be our cat and all, we should get it fixed so we wouldn't have to deal with baby cats in the future. 

  
Her surgery date was set and she did fairly well, but after about three days she started chewing on her stitches on her little belly in the middle of the night.  I tried to put a big band aid over the area but she chewed it right off.  Then I tried wrapping a big ace bandage around her but it slipped down.  So I got the idea to make a bodysuit like I had seen on a website as an alternative to that cone thing people often use on dogs.   I took one of Uncle Byron's white tube socks and cut out the toe for her head and cut out holes for her front legs. It was tricky to get it on! After we got it on her, I pulled it down to cover the stitches. When we finally got it all fixed, she would walk one or two steps and flop over - plop!  It took a little bit but she got used to it.  But we were a little late as one of her stitches had been pulled out.  She had to go back to the vet and have the whole incision re-done.

Today makes almost a week since she had her stitches re-done and she has been wearing the sock suit all week long.  This time I put first aid tape around the bottom so she couldn't get to the stitches at all.  Today I removed the sock because it was looking rather ragged and stringy and to check out her incision.  Then I put on a clean one and fixed her up all good as new again.  She wasn't very cooperative but I gave her some cat treats when I was done.  Here she is today in her cat suit on Greyson's lap...

Two days ago I lost the cat for about three hours. I thought she was gone forever and I was pretty ticked thinking about all the hours I've spent taking care of her this past week.  I went walking up and down the street calling kitty-kitty in English and shaking a pounce can to no avail. I even told one of my neighbors to look out for a cat with a coat.  After lunch that day I was sweeping the living room and bumped into the TV stand and heard a yow. There was the cat - sleeping in a basket on the shelf under the TV.  I think she'd been there all along!


A little quote about cats:   


"I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It's not. Mine had me trained in two days."  Bill Dana

Tip:  Ask before you cut up any of Uncle Byron's socks even for emergency cat suits in the middle of the night....



Hope your Friday is a good one!