Fingers and thumbs

If we got called away for a moment, the cats took over meal preparation.

By the end of that year, we’d added a new little firecracker to the ranks:

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Tinkerbelle had been adopted from a shelter by Grant’s neighbour at the condo, but the lad seemed to have difficulty looking after himself, never mind a cat. He ended up putting her outside on his porch in the hope she would find herself alternate accommodation. She went next door and peered in Grant’s window and not long after, she moved into the suites.

Forevermore, Tinks was devoted to the man who had saved her, though for a long time she had to remain in the foster quarters being too hostile to live in more confined space.

One afternoon a man came by with two young kids. They were interested in Bridget and Macy. The dad decided to fill out our questionnaire, so we took him into the other room to sit down, leaving the kids with the cats, admonishing them NOT to go near Tinkerbelle.

Two minutes later there was a loud wail and the boy ran to tell us that Tinks had scratched his sister. Tell a child not to do something and they promptly go off and do just that. The “wound” was barely a blemish, but mother would not be pleased when her darling daughter came home injured. They took their leave and we sincerely hoped we would never hear from them again as we shuddered, worrying about law suits.

Perhaps I failed to mention: Technically, we should not have had more than 3 animals on the premises, due to local zoning restrictions.

It was one of those absurd regulations that I had no problem ignoring, but it only takes one ticked off person to cause trouble. Luckily they didn’t.

Macy and Bridget remained.

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Tikka was far more agreeable than Tinks, but she was highly strung, having come from a fairly chaotic previous existence. One afternoon I found her cowering on a high up shelf after an apparent run-in, likely with Tinkerbelle, though it was easy to blame her for all such infringements!

Poor Tikka. I put my hand up to stroke her – and she bit me.

The top knuckle of my right index finger was perforated. I cleaned it and forgot about it. Hours later, when it began to smart, I should have sought care but foolishly I put it off until smarting became painful throbbing.

At the ER, the finger was sliced open and prodded, then dressed and I was told to see my doctor in the morning. He took one look and sent me off to a hand specialist who admitted me to hospital for surgery.

Two surgeries and five days later, the surgeon wanted to amputate the finger and by then I was so fed-up with the whole thing, I would have allowed him to, but luckily Grant put his foot down. Instead I spent a month visiting an infectious diseases clinic and getting IV anti-biotics.

Lesson learned, although I’d already known cat bites can be dangerous. I didn’t like to fuss, but if you should be bitten by a cat, please – don’t hesitate!

It was my own fault. I knew better than to put a hand near an agitated cat. I discovered this at the age of 9 when I thought I would “introduce” two Cambodian cats, as I thought they should be friends. Not only were they not interested, they were decidedly opposed to it. I still have a souvenir of that misguided episode on my thumb.

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Late in 2011 little Georgy left us. He was an old boy and he’d had some rough years, so it was not a surprise but we were sad never-the-less.

Tikka got adopted during the summer and I decided that I should bring Lucy upstairs to fit into Georgy’s Himalayan space – so to speak. Lucy thought it was an excellent idea, especially when the bottom fell out of a bag of kibble.

There were plenty of volunteers for the clean-up.

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Panther gave Lucy her joining instructions.

“Oh, you’re one of them!” he said “Like Yeti and Thimphu and Georgy.”

Presumably that meant acceptable, since there was never any discord.

Only a matter of months later, Thimphu was gone too.

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Regrettably, it was not the only sadness that year.

A very sweet little black cat joined the fosters and at his vet appointment some sort of dental problem had been discovered . So we took him in to get it sorted.

Cats are known to react badly to anesthesia, so we always have preliminary blood work taken as a precaution. Since our experience with Simon, we agree to anesthesia only when absolutely necessary. Simon came through the procedure well, but sometime during the following night he developed a blood clot and had a stroke.

There was nothing we could do but have him put to sleep. He was a young cat which made it all the more heart-breaking. We had known Simon so briefly, but that loss was hard to bear.

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If you let the sadness drag you down, you’d never get up in the morning, so you try to focus on happier things. Lucy seemed to know that being Himalayan made her special. The moment I’d set eyes on her, I felt a connection to her. I suppose it was partly that missing eye, followed by the terrible time she had with her ears. I think I sort of knew she would come upstairs when the time was right.

She quickly found out where my bed was and made herself comfortable. Later on, after we moved to New York, Lucy followed me around as if she was trying to round me up.

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“M” had acquired a throne!

We felt “M” deserved better than being in foster quarters but he actually seemed very content with his life and his status! He really did seem to be respected by the others.

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Piero had finally been adopted and was happily settled at last.

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There was another visit to Cougar Mountain Zoo. Oh my, had those babes grown up!

It was a tiny zoo with only a few animals that were very well looked after and we liked it.

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A few years later, they were re-paving the area in front of the mountain lion cages and I paid for a brick in memory of my own special Panther.

It seemed appropriate.

But we haven’t yet reached that part of the story.

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