Preferred customers

Today’s receipt from the vet’s office featured a 10% discount with a notation, “preferred customer”.  I think that’s just a tactful way of saying we have pets who are always getting into trouble.  I was feeding the kittens this morning when I heard the sing-song of a cat fight starting up in the front room upstairs.  Both Flippy and I ran in to break it up, and found, not surprisingly, Frank and Jackson having it out in a little corner by the litterbox.  Jackson ran off behind the sofa and Frank stayed huddled in the corner, looking psychotic.  We think the fight actually started *in* the litterbox (a large, clear, uncovered Rubbermaid container), judging from the mess that was left behind.  I didn’t want to risk picking Frank up because of his previous post-fight aggression, so I left him while I started to wipe up the floor.  Unfortunately, I found a fair amount of blood next to the box, so I carefully picked Frank up, checked him over, and even rubbed him all over with a damp paper towel.  No blood, but I was able to remove three toenails from his forehead, and I locked him in the bathroom for safe-keeping.  The lack of blood on Frank meant I had to hunt down Jackson, which required moving the sofa, crawling behind, and scruffing him to get him out.  I didn’t have the bathroom to take him into (poor planning on my part), but I wiped him off and found blood all over one of his back legs.  I wanted to shave the hair off the leg to look but I didn’t know where in the house to take him that didn’t have dogs, or Frank (again, poor planning), so with Flippy’s help we stuffed him in a nearby crate and off to the vet we went.

It’s a good thing we did take him to the vet.  While there was a puncture wound on his leg, the blood was coming from a torn toenail which needed to be cauterized.  I don’t know if Jackson tore the nail when it got stuck in Frank’s head, or if it got stuck in the mat under the litterbox where I found all the blood.  Nevertheless, those two problems were fixed, and we discovered that he’d also broken a tooth.  As I was going to have to treat with antibiotics anyway, we’re just taking the conservative route of Baytil for all his issues, and we’ll check the tooth out in a week and see if it looks like it’s healing.  I wanted to avoid the liquid Clavamox because of diarrhea issues we’ve had with the cats, and really, if you can hold a cat down long enough to fill their mouth with strawberry-flavoured liquid, you can hold them down long enough to stuff a pill in their mouth.  I’ve pilled him once so far and it went well, but it might get more difficult as he figures out what’s going on.  He’s an aloof cat anyway, so I’ve already decided I’ll probably have to bring a ladder upstairs to retrieve him from the top of the cat tree each night, or I’ll need to just pill him “opportunistically”.

The vet suggested that the fight could have been about the kittens.  Frank is very interested in them and “mothers” them—he licks them, nudges them, and likes to sit and watch over them.  The other cats show no interest or are afraid of the kittens, so I don’t think they’ve encountered any before.  Last night Jackson wandered into the kitten’s room while I was feeding them, and I wonder if their fight today was some sort of retaliation?  The kittens live in the area of the house which is “Frank’s territory”, so I think they played a part in this. 

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/16 at 06:10 PM

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  1. Poor Jackson.. and Frank. I would think it was a traumatizing experience for the both of them. But such is the feline world.  They are both very fortunate to have you.

    Posted by Simply Coll  on  01/18  at  06:08 AM

  2. You should write that book, “The Social Life of Cats: An Etiquette Guidebook for the Modern Feline”

    I don’t know if I’m moving slower or if Toby is moving faster.  Yesterday we were in the bathroom together, and I left before he did but by the time I got to the bedroom he was there already.  There’s only one path you could take from the bathroom to the bedroom - and I didn’t see him there as I was walking.  This kind of thing happened twice this week.  And you probably already know how good he is at hiding from me and how he mysteriously appears from out of nowhere.

    While you’re writing your book, I will write mine: “Toby, Where Are You: What You Do When Your Pet Keeps Cutting Through the Space-Time Continuum”

    Posted by celinus  on  01/21  at  04:42 AM

  3. You know you spend a ton of money at the vet’s office when they:

    1.  Give you the “preferred customer” discount.
    2.  Provide you with your own parking space.
    3.  Have a wing named in your honour.

    You are well on the way.  smile LOL

    I am glad to hear that things got sorted out and everyone was okay in the end.  What a scare though!  The social dynamics within your household are always so interesting.

    Posted by Expat  on  01/25  at  01:43 PM
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