Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

Yep, another week, another bandage. The fabulous mshireman posted some photos of the Monster Cat mid-week while the Fop and I were gone. Mark is fabulousness incarnate for taking care of the Monster Cat for a whole week. (Oh, he took care of Evil Cat too but she didn’t leave the back of the Fop’s couch much.) The super-duper stirrup bandage Tennyson got last Monday did last until Friday afternoon. In the first picture here you can see that in a pinch a sock works well enough as a temporary bandage replacement. Today I took Tenny into the vet again in hopes of de-coning his head and getting away bandage-free. Alas, it was not to be. He is still be-coned and bandaged… this time with a jaunty red bandage! I think the vet and his staff secretly covet my cat and want me to keep bringing him back for as long as possible. We have another appointment for Thursday for a progress check.

Many things impress me about this vet’s office. (Of course, by “impress” I mean “put me at ease about their competence and dedication”.) The staff is all pretty amazing. The vet himself, Dr. Silverberg, is kind, informative, circumspect, smart and clever. The fact that they all think my cat is fabulous helps too. When I brought Tenny in for the surgery, the vet tech receiving him talked things over with me, did some preliminary checks on him with me present and explained everything that would be happening and what precautions they’d be taking to ensure a smooth surgery. And all these appointments to re-check his bandage and re-bandage his paw? No charge – all included in the surgery cost. The surgery wasn’t cheap but it wasn’t expensive either. They have stuck to their original quote and I appreciate that a great deal both financially and because they clearly care. They are happy to have me take up another appointment slot so they can do a re-check rather than save that slot for a paying customer. From the level of activity in the office, I suspect they have plenty of clients to keep them going regardless… but they still take the extra steps to ensure animals are happy and that the animal owners are comfortable and reassured.

He gets to go back to the vet Thursday morning. There’s some pepto-pink goo under the bandage to soften up the scab. It smells like pepperoni. I hope that the smell doesn’t encourage Tenny to work even harder to get the bandage off. Maybe he’ll get to come home without the collar then. I asked if we could change the gauze holding it on today as it was starting to rub his fur off. The new gauze may or may not help.

So that’s the Monster Cat update. He’s very happy we’re home. More later on the trip to South Carolina and pictures and such.

, bandage, cat, cats, elizabethan collar, tennyson, vetrinarian