Pickle (my stray) has had some trauma. the poor thing

[fastnoc]

Every day Pickle sleeps in her enclosure if it's cold, or a plush cat bed I put out if it's warm enough.

She leaves when the sun comes up, takes off to do her cat things, and comes back around the evening time.

yesterday she came back and slept, but there was something just 'off' about it. i can't put my finger on what i noticed. maybe it was intuition. you can see this because I took a couple screenshots 

This morning she slept in instead of getting out at daybreak. I figured she might just be overly tired so i let her sleep. later in the morning the neighborhood dogs start coming around as they do to mooch the leftover cat food. But today Pickle didn't come out of the enclosure and run. in fact, she stayed way inside it, and struggled to even keep her eyes open. 

Now, this didn't scare me, because I made the entrance and exit to this thing as small as possible so only her little body could get in. there's no way these big dogs could get through no matter how they tried. But it started to concern me about her....

At around 11am i knew something was wrong. she still hadn't left... So i went outside.

she normally RUNS out of the enclosure when i come out, knowing i'll pick her up and snuggle her, then give her food. but today she looked like she was on death's bed. she eeked her way out of the enclosure and sat next to my feet and cried. I picked her up, thinking she was just ill. put her on my chest after sitting down and let her snuggle. she jams her head under my chin, kneads my shoulder and purrs normally. But today she just flopped and laid there. 

I start scratching her ears like normal, and on her left ear I feel a big hard clump. I thought it was  a tic which we have tons of. But when I went to try to dig in to see it, she cried. Now it's clear that it's a blood clot. But she won't let me get a very good look.

I look down to her feet and her left foot is wet from her licking it. Her middle toe is bent straight up. broken obviously.

I panic and call the vet. Thursdays the vet here is no doing office visits, she's there only for surgery. but makes up for this by being open saturday. The nearest emergency vet is 80 miles away and there are extenuating circumstances that make it impossible to go there. both financially and physically.

So i have had to nurse her all day.. when i was holding her i felt the life start fading from her. i swear to god I thought she was dying. and I kept whispering to her that it was ok. if she needed to go, now was the time. Course she had no idea but i tried to comfort her as best i could.

After awhile she wanted down so I put her down and put a can of wet food in her bowl. she went crazy eating is, so to me that was a very good sign. if she's eating she hasn't given up. but i notice she wasn't really eating. she'd stop when the licked all the gravy off. so i dumped out the bowl, and put a new one in to give her more fresh gravy. Did this 3 times. I have water out for her but she's never used it. she gets her moisture through the food.

So now it's a sickening waiting game. I've got 6 more hours to wait before I can take her in, and i'm worried.

Now listen, if she had died I'd be ok. I'd be very sad, but ok knowing I improved her life dramatically the last few months. It's the suffering I can't stand. if we go to the vet tomorrow and her injuries are severe I will have to put her down. i cannot afford many hundreds of dollars in vet bills right now. But if it's reasonable I will do whatever i can. I'm PRAYING she just got in a fight and is recovering. but the blood could be from bleeding ears if she got hit by a car, or, it could be wounds from being shot by a pellet gun, and the toe could be the same.

If she recovers I'm done with this crap, i don't care how difficult it will be, I'm bringing her inside with the other cats. I tried to introduce them a few days ago and Wilbur was NOT happy. he did nothing but hiss at her. She wanted to come in,and he was at the door. i left it open about 3 inches so they could both fit their muzzles in. She stuck hers in and meowed friendly like. wilbur just hissed. bad.... and when I closed the door and picked him up to reassure him, he hissed all the way back to the bedroom. it's good to note that wilbure has never hissed that i remember, in his life. So it was serious.

I'm very worried about pickle. So i could use some vibes

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• fastnoc
• Dec 13, 2012

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• fastnoc
• Dec 13, 2012

 

[GoldyCat]

Sending lots of for Pickle. Where is she sleeping for the night until you can get her to the vet?

 

[fastnoc]

Pickle was attacked by another animal. I’m sure it was one of these damn dogs around here.

She has a hole in her head on the left side by her ear, her right elbow has a hole and there was a tendon hanging out of it, and her back foot was hurting because whatever attacked her tried to drag her and she used her back feet trying to stop it and it ripped her claws off.

She should be Ok, but there’s still a lot of danger due to the open wounds. They put her on pain medicine and antibiotics and recommended I leave her there until at least Thursday 

 

[fastnoc]

by the way, that's the deal ender, i'm bringing her inside to fully adopt her, regardless of how difficult it is

 

[skor220]

I'm sorry your buddy got hurt . I went through a similar issue with one of my ferals (I named him Dusty). I hope your buddy enjoys being inside once she gets acclimated

 

[kitsey]

Poor sweet Pickle! So relieved she will be alright and will get herself and indoor home where she won't have to worry anymore, thank you for taking care of her!

 

[StefanZ]

by the way, that's the deal ender, i'm bringing her inside to fully adopt her, regardless of how difficult it is

It will not be so difficult NOW as otherwise, this fostering inside.  Now is the moment, when she is wounded and helpless, and you are bringing help, and she does knows it.

With a little luck, the domesticizing Window now opens again, and she can be fostered surprisingly easy and quickly.

Besides, even if the Windows dont opens, now she has 100% sure proof the outside is harmful and high risk dangerous. Inside although scary is much safer for health and life.  So her ballot will be all for living inside.

Good luck!

 

[bastfriend]

for fast healing for Pickle, she's lucky to have you Fastnoc!
 

 

[fastnoc]

Thank you!

She's doing better... I went to the vet and sat with her for a long time today. Poor girl, she's so sore and weak. When i hold her it's like a baby. Always has been. I hold her about mid chest, right below my rib cage, and she climbs up, puts her feet on the top of my shoulder. well right next to my neck, and nuzzles my chin. Today she did that, and I sat down to hold her like that and lean back. she sat there for an hour and just moved her head to the side to sleep, and once in awhile she'd wake up and nuzzle for a second. it was so sweet.

I put her back but grabbed a couple pics. you can tell she's got a ways to go. she looks sick. You can't see in the pic, but i brought a couple of her toys so she'd have something familiar in there with her.

I'll go back each day except tomorrow since they're closed. I'll pick her up Thursday I think

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• fastnoc
• Dec 16, 2012

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• fastnoc
• Dec 16, 2012

 

[krazy kat2]

Poor, sweet baby. I hope she gets better soon. She is a little beauty.

 

[purrfectlycat]

Thank you so very much, for being so kind and loving to this little girl. How sad that she had to have such a horrible experience that could have ended badly. Please give us an update when you can. I'm sending

and lots of prayers your way.

 

[bastfriend]

How's Pickle doing?    More vibes for healing

 

[whaler]

yeah, any update?

she is really beautiful girl!

 

[fastnoc]

I continually meant to post on this thread, and just didn't. i'm sorry.

Things got rough here. I had a large check from a client I was waiting for. it was sent fedex PRIORITY overnight on Dec 19th. It arrived FIVE days later on Christmas eve, one hour before my bank closed. I had intended on using that money to get pickle out of the vet. I have had a hard couple months. nothing tragic, I was just short till the check came in. It is enough to cover 3 or 4 months for me.

So, I RUSHED down to the bank, got there before they closed, and after 2.5 years of cashing the same checks, from the same client, they suddenly told me, on Chirstmas eve, that they had to put a SEVEN BUSINESS DAY hold on the check. I had no options.

That was Dec 24th. On Dec 25th our power went out in Hot Springs Arkansas due to the storms. That's 4 days ago. There are still over 100,000 people in Hot Springs homes and businesses without power and we are one of them. We aren't expected to get it back until after the first.

So, since the bank held my entire check, I also couldn't afford to get pickle out of boarding, nor have the money to get a hotel. Thankfully a neighbor that does have power loaned us a generator so we have electricity to some things. Not heat though, because our heater is hard wired into the breaker box. So to plug it in i'd need to splice the romex, and add a power plug male and female. Which I could easily do (i have experience) but the landloard won't allow it, so i can't.

But thankfully we have enough power to run my PC, one TV, the cable modem and charge my laptop.

Anyway, because of all that, a seven business day hold, means the earliest I will get the funds will be next Friday. So I will have to pay 12 dollars a day till I can get the funds to pick her up.

I had to make a good faith payment to the vet today, i stopped in to let them know my plans and they were all panicked thinking i was going to abandon her and not pay the bill. so i had to give them the last $50.00 i had just so I could go to the back and check on her. I just wanted to reassure her I'm still here and I didn't leave her.

When i got back there, she was lethargic. I picked her up and she was moving just as slow as the day after the attack. I don't think it's injuries though, I think she's sad. So i held her as long as I could, then put her down in her cage. She didn't even take a step, just kind of sank to her belly and laid there. No meows, no coming to the cage or anything. in fact when I first opened the cage to pick her up she backed up as though scared. but she came around once I put her to my chest.

I'm just distraught. This is the worst Christmas I think i've ever had. and the sad part is ALL of it would have been avoided if my damn bank hadn't put a hold on that check. I've been there for over 10 years, and have never deposited a check that didn't clear. it just makes no sense. it's the same client I've deposited at least 20 checks from before, and they always credited them directly to my account. in fact, sometimes I cashed most of it, leaving small amounts in there so I could pay vendors and employees.

So, everythings' ok, just sad right now. it'll all work out. just bad timing. I think Pickle is just depressed because she's locked up in that cage so long. I'm HOPING she comes around when I get her out.

 

[whaler]

glad to hear that there isn't a problem with Pickle.

sorry to hear about the situation you are dealing with. i can appreciate the loss of power, here in connecticut we have been through 3 major outages in a little more than a year.

off topic question for you - what is the Kittie cam that you use? i assume that you like it and it hasn't had any problems?i have been wanting to get one (or two) to keep an eye on my colony but i really don't know what to get.

 

[bastfriend]

What a situation Fastnoc!  I'm glad Pickle is okay though - she's probably just depressed by the vet environment.   Just a thought but maybe your bank is acting weird about this check because of something new going on with the account it comes from rather than you?    How expensive vet care is really is a shame it's like it moves closer and closer to human health care but not in a good way except sometimes when they've can treat things they couldn't before.

 

[fastnoc]

ah I'm just whining. my situation is fine. I'm just feeling sorry for myself. it's not like i'm struggling, just have to suck it up for a few days. Pickle has it way worse.

I'm hoping she'll come around as soon as I get her. I can't wait to see her back here

 

[mrblanche]

Did you ask to talk to someone in power at the bank?  If you talk to clerks, you can talk till you turn blue, they don't care.  And whatever decision the first clerk makes, every other clerk will back up.

I once had to stand in the lobby of a bank, refusing to leave with my real estate client, until they cashed her settlement check.  She had banked there for years, but they didn't like her husband's signature on the check, even though it matched the signature card with the account.  My real estate lawyer (who had drawn up the check) finally had to come down and personally guarantee the check before they cashed it for her, a half hour after they officially closed.  This was Friday afternoon, the moving van was already waiting out front, and they had to close on Monday on a house in another state.

Banks.  As Mark Twain said, "A banker is a man who wants to lend you an umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back as soon as it starts raining."
 

 

[fastnoc]

yeah that's the thing. I KNOW the manager. her name is Donna and she was the one that said to put the hold on it. It's bizarre. she must be getting divorced or had a flat tire or something.

I'll survive, but I'm considering my options now on banks

the worst part of it all is that I had regular bill payments come through that bounced now, and I have 54 in overdraft charges, and I think that's bullcrap

 

[fastnoc]

Ahhh Good things come to those who wait.

pickle has been released from Kitty Prison this morning, no parole. Straight release. They gave her 10 kibbles and a napsack.

She was THRILLED to be back home. I let her out because I can't bring her inside just yet, but she sniffed everything a LOT, ate a tiny bit of wet food and jumped into her bed.


 

Happy Day!