"Beauty confronts us with the requirement that we place ourselves among...the redeemers, the leaders in the protection of life. Once you have seen the bush on fire, you are not going to get out of the assignment unless you close your eyes to the beauty.... [You] either have to close your eyes or go back to Egypt and set the people free." - Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker, "Rising to the Challenge of Our Times"

Sunday, October 15, 2006

suspension of outdoor privileges

Kato got into a rumble of some kind on Saturday night; I couldn't see him but I'm sure the whole condo complex could hear the screaming. In addition to worrying that he was either killing or being killed, or perhaps both, I was thinking about how our phone number conveniently appears on his collar tag so that the family of whatever cat he was shredding would know who to call about their vet bill. So I went out calling and looking for him. By the time I came back of course he'd come back on his own, mostly intact but he'd broken off a claw past the quick on his back foot and the foot was all bloody. Tried to clean it up with warm water and peroxide and tried to apply some styptic powder to the broken claw but he was sort of resistant to the doctoring. Today his foot looked cleaner (more his doing than ours) but I couldn't tell whether the claw looked like it was getting infected or not. I scrutinized his gait all day to see if he was limping (only very slightly, I think); felt his foot periodically to see if it felt unusually hot (it wasn't)...I guess tomorrow will be time to decide if he has to go to the vet and get antibiotics or a cast or one of those embarrassing E-collars. Meanwhile we're relieving him of the stress of trying to figure out where his turf boundaries are. He is so grounded. So far he hasn't really campaigned to go outside again though.

1 comment:

limes said...

eek! will it grow back? poor, naughty kitty.