Cat-Tale
Recently, my daughter decided to have Tillie the kitten spade, and called while scheduling the procedure; wondering if I would commit to bringing her in on surgery day since she would already be at work. I agreed since my schedule was more flexible. I have to admit right up front, I volunteered out of necessity, but wasn’t looking forward to the day.
The night before, Tillie was not allowed to have any food after 8:00 pm. Thankfully, she was able to have water. She’s a creature of habit and was looking to eat at her normal 5:00 AM time. I wasn’t leaving the house for another three hours, and had to keep her occupied so she would forget about being hungry.
When it was time to leave I placed her in her new carrier along with a few favorite toys, zipped it up and away we went. She was calm for about 60 seconds, and then all hell broke loose. She was freaking out and trying to claw her way out of the carrier. At one point I unzipped the cover and stuck my hand in to calm her down, but she immediately attacked. She was frantic the entire twenty minute drive. I calmly talked about nothing in particular, hoping she would be comforted.
As I dropped her off and explained how upset Tillie was, the receptionist mentioned she was five days too early for her rabies vaccine, and would have to be brought back. I inquired why she hadn’t been scheduled for her surgery after that time and she asked if I wanted to reschedule the procedure……..are you kidding me? It took everything not to break down and cry over how upset Tillie’s ride in was, and they wanted me to postpone the inevitable? No thanks.
I felt guilty the remainder of the day and called to let my daughter know I was going with to pick up. I didn’t want Tillie to think I caused her such stress and pain. After we were given a mile long set of instructions of what to do and not to do, including keeping her quiet for seven to ten days, and a plastic cone, they brought her out. She immediately started growling as my daughter took her carrier.
Upon home arrival, they explained to put her in a dark, quiet room, shut the door, and leave her alone for the night. Not only would that give her the opportunity to calm down, but to keep her from lashing out at us. We checked on her often as she wobbled to and fro from the anesthesia.
During the instructions I had inquired how to keep a kitten calm, they really didn’t have any answers for me. The next morning she ran across the room at regular speed, and my daughter and I cringed. This was not going to be an easy seven to ten days. We attempted to put the ridiculous plastic cone on her head and it was too big, she kept wriggling out of it; all while sounding like we were killing her.
Since I was working from home that day, I would have her near me to keep her from tending to her incision. During surgery she was given pain medication that would last seventy-two hours. Thankfully, she slept on me most of the day. It was hilarious how I had to recline back on the couch, while working on the computer (my back was killing me by the end of the day….HA)! Oh, and my neck was a ball of sweat…LOL. I would have taken the day off, but had too much going on at the office.
At one point she starting licking her incision and I had to distract her. I researched alternatives for the cone and saw they had something we could order for next day delivery, and called my daughter. She found a do-it-yourself idea that was much cheaper and would purchase on the way home.
We ended up creating a bodysuit from a preemie onesie, by cutting in strategic places. Our first attempt at putting it on Tillie was a disaster. She was hollering and causing a fuss like we were torturing her. We made several attempts before finally getting it on. We laughed so hard. She was embarrassed, mad and drunk walking once we could get her out from under the chair. We realized we needed to do a better job of cutting the openings, and tried to correct but Tillie was not having it.
The next morning Hannah woke up to find her naked. She somehow managed to wriggle out of the straight-jacket of sorts. Our second attempt at making another one was much more successful. Even though we had quite the problem putting it back on, we managed the task much easier this time. I’m happy to report she kept the onesie on until day eight and then once again wriggled her way out. She also settled down a bit after the pain meds wore off seventy-two hours post-surgery.
She has since recovered completely and is back to her old self of running, jumping, biting, scratching, and playing. I’m thankful the process is over, even though my daughter and I both enjoyed the cuddling opportunities we had with Tillie. My daughter teased me on posting another kitten story for fear of sounding like a crazy cat lady…….but I had to share the cat-tale of Tillie’s day….haha. Do you have similar stories to share?