2004-09-02

* * * Miz Poo has been squinting a lot lately, and since she was due for her yearly shots and physical AND because Spot has bare patches on the inner part of his back legs (his inner thigh, I guess you’d call it), Fred took them both to the vet Tuesday. There’s a good reason Miz Poo has been squinting – because she has a huge scratch on her cornea. I can’t imagine how on earth she got a scratch on her cornea. What could be the cause of that, I wonder? Hmmm. I don’t know. It’s a mystery. I puts my paws around her neck and I kicks her with my back feets. Anyway, the vet prescribed a medicine for to promote healing of the cornea and another for the pain (I imagine having a scratched cornea hurts a bit). I took her back to the vet’s this morning and dropped her off. He’s going to examine her, and if her eye isn’t getting better, you know what’s going to happen? (No, he’s not going to remove her eye. Thank god.) He’s going to sew shut her nictating membrane and then her eyelid so that the eye has a chance to heal. I don’t know about you, but the idea of an eyelid being sewn shut just gives me the willies in a big way. Poor Miz Poo, with her thousands of health issues. Her eye, her lip, her wheeze. The nurse at the vet’s office told me that they do this – sewing eyes shut – all the time. They sew them shut, leave them that way for two weeks, and when they open the eye back up, it’s like a whole new eye. I was less focused on the “whole new eye” part than the “two weeks” part. “Does it ever, like, GROW CLOSED?” I asked, horrified at the very thought. The nurse laughed and reassured me that to her knowledge that has never happened. In any case, if they do sew her eye closed she’ll be able to come home this afternoon, and if they don’t she can come home even sooner. Bet she lives to be twenty or more. It’s always the ones with the health issues that surprise you, I find. For the past two nights we’ve had to give Miz Poo a ton of medicine. I grab her up in a towel, wrap it tight around her, and Fred gives her a decongestant pill, a squirt of oil, and a squirt of medicine in each ear. Then I hand her over to Fred, and he holds her while I put one kind of medicine in both eyes, and one kind of medicine just in the bad eye. Then we put her down, and she just kind of sits there and looked like she’s not quite sure what just happened. My poor baby. (She’s out of surgery and doing fine – she’ll be coming home this afternoon.)

* * *
Since Miz Poo was going in for surgery this morning (or potentially going in, I guess I should say), we had to put the cat food away before we went to bed. It’s hardly fair that just because Miz Poo couldn’t have food after midnight none of the cats could, I know, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Fred put the food in the bathroom closet before he went to bed, and the cats milled around looking worried and nervous. Spot ran in and out of the bathroom several times, and the Booger ran around making the grumpy noise he makes constantly. Not ten minutes after Fred went to bed, I heard a crackling sound in the closet. When I looked over, I saw the Booger on the top shelf in the closet, trying to get into the bag of Kitten Chow (you’ll recall that we give them Kitten Chow as a treat and they LURVE it). I took the bag and put it where he couldn’t get to it, and he gave me a pissed-off look, then ran around grumping some more. When I ignored him, he let out several ear-piercing meows, then settled atop the kitty condo to go to sleep, where he stayed most of the night. I got up at 4:20 to pee, and the second I stepped through the bathroom door, I was surrounded on all sides by frantic, starving-to-death cats who wanted to be sure I knew there was NO FOOD, DAMNIT! Somehow they survived the night and when Fred poured food into the cat bowl this morning before he left (right before he snatched up Miz Poo to put her in the cat carrier), they about lost their little kitty minds. And then each ate about two pieces of cat food and wandered off. The Booger went to see why Miz Poo was making sad meowing sounds from the hallway. Fred had put her in the cardboard cat carrier and then left (I was the one who actually took her to the vet’s), and I was in the process of getting dressed when I heard the sound of cat jumping on cardboard and then a hiss from Miz Poo. When I went out to look, I saw that the Booger had jumped atop the carrier, pushing the top down and allowing enough room for Miz Poo to escape. When she saw me coming toward her, she ran and hid under the bed, and I couldn’t get hold of her for the life of me. I had to call Fred, because I am a lame, helpless girl who can’t get a portly cat into a carrier, and he came back home (he was only a minute away) to help catch her. This time, we put her in the plastic carrier the Booger couldn’t break her out of.
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16 thoughts on “2004-09-02”

  2. I just called Tracy at work and announced over his speaker phone (and loudly) “YOUR BROTHER IS PREGNANT!” Heh. I kill me.
    So you are going to Maine to see your Grammy? I think that’s good. Glad we got to see her this Summer.
    You will like P. She is really down to earth and well, normal. I like that in a person.

  4. The little cornea-scratcher only let her out so he could mess her up some more. You can never trust the stumpy ones 🙂

  5. Gah – as soon as I read that Miz Poo’s eyelid would have to be sewn shut my eyes immediately began to water in sympathy. Poor Kitty – she needs to put the smackdown on the Booger.

  8. A scratched cornea does indeed hurt. I got mine gouged by a tree branch once (lovingly snapped into my eye by my husband) and it was squinting and watering to beat the band. I’ll bet it would actually feel pretty good if they sewed her eye shut. Every time I blinked I remember it hurt like heck. But then, the stitches would probably hurt, and then itch, so whatever. Poor Miz Poo.

  9. Robyn-
    I am so sorry to hear about your Gran, I hope that your trip goes smoothly both there and back and that she moves along as peacefully as she can. I think euthanasia should be allowed for people who want it. I am so very sorry for this.
    And, I have some sad news… Mr. Booger’s doppelganger, my cat Juniper, had to be put down yesterday… you can go to my blog for all the details when you don’t have so much sadness of your own to deal with. So please give all of your kitties a loving squeeze for me. I wish I could snuggle her one more time.

  10. In your wildest dreams, you can’t imagine how horrid having a scratch on your cornea is. I know. It happened to me… by a plant in my house, I leaned over it to peek out the window and a branch got me on the eyeball… i have NEVER had so much pain in my life… no sleep at all, you can’t blink without knife pain…you move your eye, which is VERY hard not to do.. and knife pain…you try keeping it patched up, but you eyeball moves inside…dislodging the healing membranes…all the time… i went and got it checked..yep…a scratch…he gave me gunk to put in it and i suffered for a week. the longest week of my life! no sleep ever! when i went back to get re-checked in a month, the eye doc said..”Heh! before when I saw you, I just figured it was a scratch, no big deal… but then it happened to ME (the doc – he got a scratched eyeball) and now I KNOW what you meant when you said the worst pain EVER!”
    Yep…doc! nothing like having a little empathy for your patients!
    Prayers for the kitty…and for your grandmother.
    Bex

  11. I feel so bad for poor Miz Poo! I hope she heals quickly. Have a safe trip to and from Maine. I’ll say a prayer for your grandmother, I hope you get to spend some time with her and enjoy being with your family.

  12. Poor Poo..she looks so sad all trapped! :o( I am glad she’s being treated well.Hope she’s all better soon!!
    Congrats to your brother and family..a new baby just brings such happiness!

  13. Robyn…
    thanks for the coffee-snorting before work! The cats-without-food thing was straight on. Rock on! Hope Miz Poo is feeling better…

  14. Poor Poo. Those scratches hurt like hell. And so sorry about your Grandma. My thoughts and prayers go with you to Maine.

  15. Robyn Robyn Robyn. What would you do without your cat catching Fred? I understand your frustration. I have a cat that “knows” something is up and hides. I have to literally take apart the bed because the cat will move out of reach everytime I try to grab him. You’d think after 11 years the cat would realize I love him and won’t hurt him no matter what. He still runs if I make “direct eye contact” with him. Silly boy!
    I hope Miz Poo is gets well soon. Take care and have a safe trip to Maine. I hope your granny is more comfortable now.

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