Kitty. . .

It's true that we don't own our kitty.  She owns us.  We live in her house and she graces us with her presence.  But only when she feels like it.  Four or five years ago she just appeared in our house through an open window.  It didn't bother us or the dogs and she'd climb through the window whenever it struck her fancy.  I finally had her checked for a chip and it turned out that her owner had been living a few houses down the street but had moved away.  Without taking Kitty with her.  (Her given name is Mama Suki!!) So, we named her Snowfie and started to feed her.  If we gave her too much attention, she would disappear for awhile.  If we respected her and gave her some distance, she would come to us and purr happily while allowing us to pet her.  Over the years we've come to love her and she stays pretty close to home.  I'm pretty sure she loves us, too. 

Last week when we were in the middle of trying to help Lucy survive, Snowfie managed to get in a fight.  She's a big bully when cats get into our yard and I've seen her chase off cats three times her size (she is all of 7 lbs, 2 oz!).  This time, the cat must have turned on her because Snowfie showed up with a little chunk torn out of her face.  I just couldn't deal with it at the time but I called the vet to see what I should do.  They told me to keep it clean with iodine, put neosporine on it and to watch for signs of infection.  I did all of that and it seemed to be working.  Until yesterday when Zach called to tell me that Snowfie had scratched her sore and "stuff" was oozing out of it.  Ewww. . .

I'm no vet but I knew it was infected as soon as I looked at it.  I cleaned it out and . . . well, I won't go into the gorey details but the sore was pretty full of gunk.  I called the vet and our very kind doctor from Pets First said he could look at her first thing in the morning and he would try to keep the charges to a minimum.  The idea of one more vet bill makes me a little sick to my stomach!  I tracked down a pet carrier (thanks Mike and Emily!!) and tried not to worry about how painful that sore must have been.  This is what it looked like (don't scroll down if you're squeamish!!):

So. . . I took her to the vet this morning at 8 a.m. and the doctor confirmed what I already knew.  He gave her an antibiotic shot that will continue to work for 2 weeks (this made me VERY happy- I can't face trying to get another animal to take drugs!) and then he aggressively cleaned out the wound.  She did much better than I expected her to and the vet even said she is a good kitty.  She is much, much more relaxed this evening.  As long as I clean it out good twice a day with saline solution, she should make a full recovery. 

It's good to know that it isn't life threatening. . . .