Stockholm?
Things have gone from bad to worse with Critter, which is really no excuse for my lack of posts. It's summer, it's sunny, I'm almost done my marking, I'm feeling lazy. Those are the type of excuses I would give, just so you know I've got them. But back to the matter at hand, which is poor Critter.
A few weeks ago (2 and a half to be exact) Evan was trying to clean off something that had gotten stuck to Critter's stylish cast, and Critter wasn't too happy about being held and restrained, so he was squirming like crazy, and the next thing we knew Critter was half way across the room, and Evan was hold a stylish blue cast. They both looked stunned. Then Critter dashed under our bed where he hid for over half an hour frantically cleaning his recently casted leg. He refused to put any weight on it that night, which we figured was understandable since he hadn't been able to use it in six weeks. It looked tiny and withered compared to his other leg. But we weren't too concerned since his previous owners had told us the cast was to come off on July 12, and this was only a few days early. Still, I took him to the vet the next day, just to make sure.
Cut to the x-ray and the vet telling me that he 'had some bad news' causing me to have that unpleasent feeling of suffocating on my own heart. Apparently this 'hair-line fracture' that Critter's previous owners told us about was actually two separate fractures (one major one, and a minor one) and a fairly serious joint separation, but you can see how easily those two things might get mixed up. . . and then there was the failure of them to mention that we should have had Critter confined to a tiny space where he couldn't run or jump or otherwise strain his leg at all. All that amusing tearing around our apartment he was doing, that was bad.
So the vet re-set his leg, put a new splint on it, gave us pain medication for Critter, and told us that the poor little guy can't be allowed to run or jump for the next three to four weeks. Then they'll do another x-ray and see if his leg is healing properly this time.
Now he spends the night in the bathroom with the toilet seat up (because then he can't jump on the toilet) and spends his days in the living room in a corner tethered to the wall. He alternates between sleeping and meowing, and we go over and play with him (gently) as much as we can. But he has suddenly become much more affectionate than he ever was when he was free. I like to think that this is because he has finally gotten used to us, but there's a nagging suspicion that we have a stockholm syndrome affected cat.
A few weeks ago (2 and a half to be exact) Evan was trying to clean off something that had gotten stuck to Critter's stylish cast, and Critter wasn't too happy about being held and restrained, so he was squirming like crazy, and the next thing we knew Critter was half way across the room, and Evan was hold a stylish blue cast. They both looked stunned. Then Critter dashed under our bed where he hid for over half an hour frantically cleaning his recently casted leg. He refused to put any weight on it that night, which we figured was understandable since he hadn't been able to use it in six weeks. It looked tiny and withered compared to his other leg. But we weren't too concerned since his previous owners had told us the cast was to come off on July 12, and this was only a few days early. Still, I took him to the vet the next day, just to make sure.
Cut to the x-ray and the vet telling me that he 'had some bad news' causing me to have that unpleasent feeling of suffocating on my own heart. Apparently this 'hair-line fracture' that Critter's previous owners told us about was actually two separate fractures (one major one, and a minor one) and a fairly serious joint separation, but you can see how easily those two things might get mixed up. . . and then there was the failure of them to mention that we should have had Critter confined to a tiny space where he couldn't run or jump or otherwise strain his leg at all. All that amusing tearing around our apartment he was doing, that was bad.
So the vet re-set his leg, put a new splint on it, gave us pain medication for Critter, and told us that the poor little guy can't be allowed to run or jump for the next three to four weeks. Then they'll do another x-ray and see if his leg is healing properly this time.
Now he spends the night in the bathroom with the toilet seat up (because then he can't jump on the toilet) and spends his days in the living room in a corner tethered to the wall. He alternates between sleeping and meowing, and we go over and play with him (gently) as much as we can. But he has suddenly become much more affectionate than he ever was when he was free. I like to think that this is because he has finally gotten used to us, but there's a nagging suspicion that we have a stockholm syndrome affected cat.
posted by mudget at 9:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home