What are the 5 stages of dealing with a housebound cat?
1. Denial - he can't possibly howl day and night for a week!
2. Irritation - will he ever shut up?
3. Teasing - Spike, do you want to go out; shall I open the door?; oh, you can't go out because you are injured!! Sorry!!
4. Anger - Spike, shut the freak up!!!
5. Acceptance - I shall go without sleep, I don't need to concentrate anyway, it is only for a week.
On Wednesday I was examining Spike (one of our two cats) because he had been in a fight a few days earlier. His ear was torn and he had a new scratch on his nose. I noticed a big hard lump on his leg (rear leg, at the "ankle"). Of course, Wednesday afternoon is our vets "early closing day". So we took him in at 8am Thursday morning.
We figured it was an abscess, because he gets them once a year at least, from cat fights. Vet felt it, said "tumor" and "90% chance it is cancer". (So much for bedside manner.) All this before I had even had coffee.
So we left Spike and they cut him open and removed the tumor and sent him home with a silly bright pink bandage covering his whole leg.
For the first 24 hours, he could not sit still or sleep. Just kept pacing and howling. He must have been in pain. Today finally he slept. But he is still howling to go out. Under normal circumstances, in this good of weather, Spike spends 23 hours a day outside. But he has to stay inside for a week, until his wound heals.
Last night he finally went to sleep around 3am - in the bread basket on the kitchen counter beside the toaster. After I took out the plastic bags I had been storing there and put in a nice towel.
I put him in a harness and on a leash and took him out onto the deck for an hour. I read a magazine and he lay in the sun.
Here is hoping we both sleep tonight!!
(And he seems fine, we will know about the tumor on Monday, but he is 13 years old and I guess these things happen.)
