Kit Bit!

Alright, how many cat posts are too many? That is a good question - I wish I didn't have to write this one but I just have to tell you about my traumatic day yesterday with my beloved kitty. Got up like any other day - went to the kitchen to get my vitamins and diet coke (yes, ironic combo isn't it?). No meowing at the back door, but didn't think much of it. I went upstairs to my computer and began my routine (farming) and didn't think about the cat again until Cory asked where she was, and I replied that she was outside still. Cory proceeds to get ready and then leave for work and I decide to go and get the cat from outside so that she can eat and be brushed etc. I open the back door - which is all I normally have to do, and she isn't there. I get my shoes on and step out into the back yard and call for her, which always works and then I whistle for her - Kit will do anything I tell her to if I whistle (kind of dog like actually). Still, no Kit. I start to get worried because this is one hungry kitty in the mornings and usually very obedient when called. I keep calling and whistling and pretty soon she appears in the garage doorway holding her foot up and acting like she is going to die right there on the spot while I am looking at her! I go over to her and try to touch her and she lets out a horrible sound and hisses and makes all sort of rabid overtures at me. I try to pick her up and same thing - except she acts like I am killing her too by making this awful whining noise that cats make when they are in paid. I quickly conclude - "hit by car!" I take her in and she is doing that fight or flight thing where she wants to kill me one second and is trying to find some seclusion so she can go off and die the next. I am bawling my eyes out by this point and I call Cory to ask him if he ran over the cat on his way out of the garage. Now we are both upset. I knew it would add a whole new element of stress and anxiety to get Kit into her carrier (she knows what that is for and where she goes in it) and then to be poked and prodded by someone that she despises (the vet), so I say to myself I will give her a while to rest, plus it just seemed awful to manhandle her when she hurt so bad. Actually, the last time I took my sick kitty to the hospital they put her down and I really wasn't looking forward to that again (this may have been the true cause of my reluctance!).

I give her a couple hours to recoup and she sleeps the entire time - and then I rationally plot out that it is Friday and that I had better do something before the weekend while I still can. I call the vet and tell them what I think happened and how she is acting and the doctor is already out of town for the weekend so they refer me to another doctor. They even very nicely call there to tell them to expect me. I load the cat up - in a laundry basket so that she won't get all worked up about it and load her into the car.

The doctor gives her a sedative - not the sleep kind but the muscle relaxing kind - so that he can touch her to do his exam. She is quite cooperative now - and it is discovered that she was not hit by a car but viciously attacked and bitten by another feline in our own yard!!! The bite is now infected and Kit has a fever of 105! The fever is what is making her act like she is dying - he said cats are dramatic and really don't handle fevers well at all. In fact, he actually said cats act like "men" when they have a fever (kind of true, you must admit). So - she got a shot of antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory shot as well and we were on our way home. He also told me to re-think Kit spending her evenings outside as this behavior is common in the cat world (bullies!). We do have some very unwelcome cats that seem to congregate out back and make all manner of awful noises but we mistakenly thought they were friends with our cat - not monsters! We even tease her about her popularity and her night life. Well, she is probably going to be spending her evenings inside from now on and go out in the day now that it is getting cooler. So, so, soooo relieved that it all worked out and she is alive and well and still with me!