Great Party!

Okay, not really. Clark got beat up again last Friday. I didn't notice that anything was wrong when he came back into the house in the afternoon. It wasn't until nearly 6pm that I noticed he was walking slowly and low to the ground with his tail between his legs and was trying to hide in my closet. When I tried to pick him up he yelled like it hurt, so I packed him into the cat carrier, located & printed directions to an emergency vet, and then Slipshod had to take him as soon as he got home because I needed to feed the girls and get them to bed.

So, the diagnosis was that yes, he was beat up - mildly, actually. They shaved the poor guy (so undignified!) in four places so they could see the bites and scratches and clean them up, and obviously he's now been sporting a reverse lampshade collar since Friday night. He's on antibiotics twice per day for six more days... it is not fun to give him his medicine so I can't wait until that part of his care is over with. When Slipshod got him to the emergency vet, Clark also had a mild fever that they thought was coming on due to infection from the bites.

After we moved here and decided (months later) to let our cats outside (they were inside-only for the first two years of their lives) Clark stayed out one night - we couldn't find him - and the next morning he was out back looking like he felt horrible. He could barely walk, was shaky, didn't want to eat or drink, and all those lovely things. We took him to the vet and the result was like what just happened but it had been longer since he lost the fight so he was worse off - his temperature was 105.

SO, now that this has happened twice, and both of our cats have been coming home with scratches on their heads for the past few weeks, we've decided to make them inside only cats again. Lois is PISSED OFF. Clark is still kinda depressed and recovering, though, so he's often upstairs when we open the doors, which is a relief. Lois is trying to make a break for it and outright demanding to be let out.

This afternoon the girls and I will be taking Clark to our regular vet for a post-emergency-vet-visit checkup. I really hope they let us take the stupid collar off him.