Spooky Rides Out West

Spooky is a BADASSS Puddycat. Pure snowy white naturally, dirty and smeared with auto grease normally, with no social graces, and a driving territorial aggression, he is forever coming home with his face/leg/chest/flank all messed up from the recent Saturday night brawl. "He just loves a good fight," says LM, shaking his head in admiration.

Well, this time his opponent got him back in kind. Homie noticed that his cheek was all swollen, presumably from a bite, and we knew that it would probably open up, or Spooky would open it up himself, which he did on Friday morning. He had the manners to go and drain it outside, but still his face was a mess. A silver-dollar sized hole of blood, pus, dead cat bits and fur. Tex-Mex anyone?

Having been through this sort of thing before, I plied the usual remedies plus some hardball topical anitbiotic left over from LM's affair with S. aureus. I spent a lot of time with him, sleeping on the sofa with him on my chest. But by yesterday I became worried that he wasn't going to resolve this himself, so I made a vet appointment. The ointment didn't seem to be having the miraculous effect it had on our human patient. Of course, upon having broken down and called the vet, I found a treatment that seemed to be working, a drying powder compound of Myrrh gum powder (vulnerary, antimicrobial) Goldenseal (antibiotic) Echinacea root powder (anti-hyaluronidase action, immune stimulant) and Prickly Ash bark powder (astringent, antimicrobial, topical anaesthetic). It helped dry up the oozing gore and help a crust begin at the edges of the wound, to begin a scab.

I couldn't get a ride to the vet and didn't try too hard, having used up a lot of car karma recently, so here is what you do when you have to transport a LARGE cat with a fucked up face: You tie the danged cat carrier onto your bicycle rack, and walk it over to the vet. Just cross I35 like you are an ordinary pedestrian. Get up and ride the bike? It didn't work, he is 14 pounds of loose weight and I already had nightmares of dropping the carrier and spilling my milky white kitty onto the bridge over the Interstate. (I just now realize why my right arm is so sore in an odd spot - I thought it was hoola hoop strain.) Really, he took it very well, but there is just NO WAY to look cool while you are doing something like this. I should have just muttered, cursed, and pointed like the crazy old bag lady that I am becoming, and nobody would have given a second look.

Has Spooky been vaccinated? -Yeah, most recently when I bailed him out of the pound! Flea treatment, earmites, previous vet records, feline leuk/aids testing? Jeez, I know I would have to walk the Hall of Shame, so I did it with as much poise and grace as I could, and in the end they washed out the wound (which I had also done of course but they have better gear) cleaned out the earmites and gave a scrit for a month's worth! of antibiotics. He had no fever, so I am wondering about the antibiotics.

Then back on the bike and across the interstate with no mishap! This is a new level of bike self-sufficiency, I guess, made much less stressful by the cooperation of the cat. So prayers and candles to Spooky Monster, the baddest cat of my neighborhood and a good friend. Speedy recovery, keep your ears clean, and stay out of trouble.