Two days ago, when I got home from work, right as I opened the door to come inside, Lunch and Jinx were waiting for their golden opportunity. Both of them bolted for the opening. I was able to stop Jinx, but Lunch went sailing by, right over my foot. I threw my stuff down, yelled a few choice words, and ran after her.
Have you ever seen a greased pig catching contest? I haven't. But I'm pretty sure how it would go. Something like:
Lunch sprints along the front of the duplex, Alison follows a fair distance behind. Lunch runs up the neighbors stairs onto their front porch and stops, a look of panic on her face...where can I go now? As Alison rounds the corner and approaches the stairs, Lunch gets ready to jump off the porch into the lawn. Alison apparently sees this next move and strategically runs back around the corner into the lawn. Oh, the strategy was actually on Lunch's part! She runs down the stairs and around to the back of the duplex! Boy is she fast!! Alison follows behind. Lunch decides the back yard is a dead end and turns, facing Alison, running straight toward her. As Lunch shoots past, Alison dives onto the grass, attempting to catch the little bugger! Ouch, that was painful! Lunch runs back across the front of the duplex, and down the small road. Patrick has joined the contest and shoo-es Alison to stay back. Dejected, Alison gives up her failed attempts and returns home. Patrick is gone for a few minutes, returns to grab the bag of kitty treats, goes back outside and returns shortly with a mischievous cat.
Man, Lunch is one devil of a kitty!!!
And as if that story isn't enough, last night topped it off. I'm talking, seriously topped it off.
I got home from work close to 11pm. My neighbors were out on their porch, so I talked to them for several minutes and shared the afore mentioned story. While sharing this story, I could hear some intent kitty mewes. See, I told them, they are desperate to get outside again! Those are their I WANT OUT cries!
We have a swamp cooler in one of the windows of our dining room. Unfortunately, this swamp cooler doesn't work. Patrick had taken the cover off both inside and outside to see if he could fix it, so it had been a playground for the kitties to breathe the outside air and listen to the birds.
After talking to the neighbors for several minutes, I was pretty sure the mewes were coming from the swamp cooler. Naughty little kitties, I thought! After a couple more minutes, the mewes became more frequent, panicked, and needing attention. Jokingly I said, I better go make sure no one is stuck in there! So, I head over to my place to scope it out.
I walk in the front door and turn the corner into the dining room. Jinx is on the table staring at the swamp cooler. Spaz is in the cooler, looking very intently into it, then looking at me, then back into the cooler. Where is Lunch? The mewes resume. Lunch is IN the cooler. I take a closer look, and somehow (and I still don't know how), Lunch is between the circular fan and the housing for the fan. She is pancaked in there and very unhappy about it. Very unhappy.
I have no idea how swamp coolers are put together, and I really don't know how to get her out. So, I go back outside and call for the neighbors to help. While the Mrs. is inside looking into the cooler, Mr. is outside yanking the belt off of the fan. Lunch is crying the whole time, poor baby. Mr. was able to turn the fan, unsure if it was hurting Lunch worse, but it spun her out into Mrs. arms. We run inside and Mrs. says, it's bad, Alison, she's bleeding on her leg! So, we get the cat carrier and call around for an animal hospital.
I'm still in my work clothes, so I run downstairs to change, call Patrick, and he asks me to wait for him to get home from his friend's house before we go anywhere. I had only seen one side of Lunch, and her knee area was rubbed completely raw. It was bright red, a little bloody, and the hair was all gone...all over the dining room floor, actually. I just wanted to cry for her.
I got online to Google tetanus and cats, and fortunately it is really hard for cats to get tetanus. I got her out of the carrier and upon inspection, both of her knees were rubbed raw. One side had all the hair and the first layer of skin removed. The other side was into at least 2 layers of skin. Oh, poor poor Lunch!
After calling the animal hospital again, Patrick felt comfortable keeping her at home and using an anti-bacterial ointment that we had for Jinx a few months ago. (Jinx had adult kitty acne...how cute.) We gave Lunch a bath which turned her white again and the bathtub black, then put 50/50 hydrogen peroxide and water on her wounds. It had to hurt, she was hollering like you wouldn't believe. Then we put the ointment on and held her close so she wouldn't lick it off. That poor little baby...I brushed out her wet tangled hair and petted her for an hour.
She's super soft and beautiful today, and the wounds are looking better already. I feel so sad for her every time we clean it up with the hydrogen peroxide solution and put ointment on. I know it hurts. She's moving around just fine, is eating well, and purring, so she's okay.
She is seriously one mischievous, naughty little cat! A couple weeks ago she shoved herself through a small opening under a window we had propped open. Patrick grabbed her tail just in time to yank her back in. She's driving us nuts! I knew she was an escape artist, but good grief!!
So, we're hoping our hell-week with the kitties is coming to an end. Spaz is jealous of the attention Lunch is getting and has started hissing at her if she gets within 3 feet of her.
And to think...we want children?!?! :)
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