Bad Kitties

OK, so the kitty in question didn’t look at all like this. But I could have been seriously injured.

We have always, as I have observed in the past, had a cat or two around the house. We like cats. I’ve also written about Nacho, “my” cat, who is a good writerly cat and the staff cat of Biscuit City Enterprises. Our other current cat is Tuxedo, Becky’s cat, who I also call “Scabby’ or “Scratchy” since she apparently itches and creates places on herself where she scratches.

We’ve tried about everything the vets can think of to help the poor cat, but she still keeps on scratching. The last thing the vet suggested was to give her some Benadryl. This is done, theoretically, by filling a syringe (without a needle) with Benadryl and quickly injecting it into the cat’s mouth.

I have the most experience doing this sort of thing,so I did the first dose and felt like I had gone ten rounds with a gorilla. To say that Tuxedo did not want any part of being medicated is probably the understatement of the year. She fought me, spraying Bendryl all over herself, me and the kitchen floor. She then ran around for about fifteen minutes acting as if she were choking. It was quite a show.

For the next dose, I enlisted Becky’s to hold Scratchy. We wrapped in a towel but we couldn’t wrap her mouth since the med needed to go there (duh). She again resisted mightily and in snapping at the syringe, nailed me on the little finger.

I don’t know if you have ever been bitten by a cat, but if you have, you do know it is an unpleasant experience. Cats’ bites are the worst (humans are second) because of all the foul bacteria that inhabit their mouths. I was bitten by a cat we were trying to take in a couple of years ago about 8 PM on a Saturday night: twelve hours later, the bite was infected, swollen and horribly painful. I sang in choir that morning and then hied myself to the hospital where they gave me an antibiotic shot and a round of pills. I have since heard of people who have had to be hospitalized and given antibiotic IV’s. No, thanks.

So, I learned my lesson with cat bite #1. I saw the doctor a couple of hours later and got a course of antibiotics to take. This bite swelled right away, became numb at the tip of my finger and tingled the length of the digit. I could tell it was headed toward painful so I was glad to see the doctor quickly. He said it was a good thing that I came into see him. I agreed.

So, Tuxedo is still itchy, but I’m out of the cat medication by mouth biz. Bite me once, shame on the cat. Bite me twice, shame on me!