WWQP Bulletin Board Chat

JUST THE BEGINNING

of the news of the past two weeks.

I’m back after an interesting couple of weeks. As mentioned previously, I had an unplanned stay at the local hospital. I’d been invited to have Mother’s Day dinner at the home of neighbors who are good friends. They have a couch potato cat that is seldom outdoors beyond the porch but he does ramble in the yard occasionally. He’s aloof and I’m not much of a cat person. On this occasion he was lying on the sofa with the lady of the house. He’s so fat he spreads like an oil slick when he lies down. She was petting him then said he had “that look” and she left him alone. I wasn’t offering to pet him but he seduced me as I stood by the sofa accepting a glass of wine from the host. The cat put his head under my hand and seemed to be asking to have a pat. Almost unconsciously I responded by gently stroking his head and back. Next thing I knew he was sinking his teeth into my hand. I yelped, spilled my wine down my blouse (fortunately it was white). The host, swearing at the cat went to the bathroom for anti biotic salve and peroxide. I thought that was a bit of overkill but after rinsing in sink and wiping with paper towel accepted the first aid and a band aid to keep from dripping blood on the carpet. They apologized profusely and I brushed the incident off having received many a puppy bite in my life. It didn’t hurt much at all. Next morning the top of my hand was swollen and was a very angry red, almost purple. I though possibly it was infected but went on to guild meeting. I happened to sit next to a nurse and I asked her if she thought it was infected. She was rather alarmed, I thought unnecessarily so, and told me to get to my doc right away. After the meeting I had lunch with a friend and noticed that the red swelling was beginning to spread up my arm so called my doc and headed her way. I did stop and buy an outfit for the Callaway trip on the way as they said they were booked for the rest of the day and that they’d “squeeze me in”. Doc saw me at about 4:30 and she saw the infection was almost to my elbow. I figured she’d give me a prescription and send me on my way. WRONG. She told be to get to the hospital immediately and that I needed to be on intravenous antibiotics as soon as possible. She told me not to go home for clean underwear or to feed the pooch.

In the parking lot I call my dear neighbors who said they’d rescue Shadow and bring the necessities in the next morning. Shortly after I was admitted an orthopedic surgeon came in at my doc’s request to examine the hand. He said cellulitis, which is a very common result of cat bite, can spread into the sheathing around tendons and other stuff I didn’t really understand and if so it requires immediate surgery to prevent permanent damage and loss of use of fingers. Yikes. This was my right hand, the one I quilt with. However, he thought we’d caught it in time. He checked three more times before I was released on Wednesday at mid day with a prescription for the continued use of the anti biotic cocktail I’d been getting in the arm. Apparently this is not unusual in the case of cat bites. To add to the chaos, my doc called animal control. I called the friends from the hospital and told them what had happened so they would be prepared to hear from animal control and have the cat’s shot record handy. Guess what; the cat was two years overdue for a rabies shot and spent the next ten days in quarantine at the animal shelter. The owners let me know while I was still in the hospital that they were angry with me because I’d “been told to leave the cat alone.” That response made me very angry but fortunately I didn’t respond. The cat is out of jail, my hand is healed without having needed surgery and the cat was inoculated at the animal shelter. During the Sunday dinner after the bite the hostess commented about how mean the cat is and that she has the scars to prove it. They have grandchildren in that house several times a year. I think they ought to shoot the beast but they didn’t ask for my opinion. Anyway, I walked down to their house today and we kissed and made up. I’ll never go near the cat again but I can’t understand keeping such an aggressive, uninoculated pet around especially when there are children present.

Jean, perhaps you have some idea why a house cat is more likely than a dog to cause such an infection. Cats are such finicky eaters and so clean in general while most dogs will eat almost anything. My Molly ate carrion at every opportunity. Playing with her and giving her a treat which she was very rough about taking from my hand she broke my skin with her teeth many times and I never had the least infection from her. She was a pig and would eat dead animals (when she wasn’t rolling in them) and when she was young delighted in eating her own and other animals’ feces. She really was quite disgusting. You all know how I managed to love her. I suppose the neighbors love their cat but I hope they don’t let the shots fall behind and that they keep him away from grandchildren.

More later about the trip. I have an obscene number of pictures of the gardens and will cull through them and post a few of the best. I don’t want to make any post get too long although I suppose I’ve already done that with this one. Rosey, I have a tip for you about the masked rascals.

Jane in NC

posted by Jane in NC @ 6:57 PM