And what did we learn today, kids?

[ysobelle]

Don't leave ribbon on the floor. Don't leave thread, string, plastic, long bits of fabric, or pencils on the floor, either-- but especially ribbon.

I neglected to tell snugglyevil this vital fact when she was industriously rending caitriona27's corset Jackie O'Lantern limb from limb. Later, I put the pile of dead ribbon to rest, but I apparently missed a piece.

Tekiah found it.

I'm sure one day, I'll look back, and this will all be funny. At the moment, however, that particular point of view is obscured by an estimated medical bill of-- wait for it-- $1,800.00. The doctor who performed the emergency operation on her at 5pm today said she had to make six different incisions in her intestines to remove a piece of "something" that stretched from her stomach back to her colon. If we'd waited much longer, it most likely would have perforated her intestines, and she would most likely have died. Fairly messily. As it is, she vomited bile in several spots in the apartment, and left ugly spills of bloody urine elsewhere. I found one of the latter on the bathroom floor this morning, but was unable to determine whence it came. When foxglove_8778 sent me a text message this morning from my apartment saying, "I don't think Tekiah feels well," I was worried. Then she sent a photo from her phone showing her sitting on my couch with Tekiah lying limply beside her. I knew.

Going downstairs at the Cat Hospital and seeing her flat out on a counter with an oxygen tube at her nose was excruciating. It was impossible not to remember seeing Kayli exactly like that at Penn, just before she died. It was an image I'd mercifully let slip these last few years. And one I really could have done without seeing again. The difference this time, of course, was the lashing feline tail, and the slight opening of the eyes saying, "I'd take your arm off if I were feeling just a little better."

She came through the surgery very well, and will most likely come home tomorrow. Dr. Simpson couldn't tell me exactly what it was that she'd taken from Tekiah's innards: "Something long and blueish/blackish/greenish...?" When we finally arrived back home without her, I moved a pillow on the floor, and came across a tattered, crunched, chewed piece of organdy ribbon: sickly glittering with dried cat spit. I just sighed.

$1,800.00 for a 39-cent piece of organdy. Right before the trip to London that'd already drained most of my savings, and for which I'd so carefully planned.

She'd better appreciate this.

But I know she won't.

Wretched, rotten, stupid, gorgeous cat.

Comments

[mirroreyes.livejournal.com]

OH POOR POOR KITTY!!!

Poor baby... whimpers... I'd offer to scratch her ears but she doesnt like that.
Poor thing... poor worried cat mommy

i hope you BOTH are recovering from the scare...

[snugglyevil.livejournal.com]

OK...now I feel horribly awfuly guilty.

[ysobelle.livejournal.com]

Nope. This is my fault. I didn't tell you, and I didn't pick up the ribbons fast enough.

She's just an idiot.

[mermaid2003.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you caught her before it got worse! Cats and string and whatnot are just a disaster.

[deathwardegg.livejournal.com]

Poor kitty... I hope things turn out okay. I'm sure they will.

I was shocked recently when my cat "Gato" (sixteen pounds of muscle - he's half bobcat, I think) was attacked by a cougar at my parents' Ranch. He was fine after the hunk of flesh the mountain lion took out of his back healed up. Vet said, "Yah, if a cougar gets after 'em, they're usually goners... I've only seen one other housecat survive in, well nigh, 35 years..."

But $1,800? - sounds like one of them "city" doctors to me! Gato was in the hospital four days, and it was only about $500.

[hennabee.livejournal.com]

Reiki to the kitty, dear. *nods*

[ocdperson.livejournal.com]

What kind of string was this? Organdy? The cat ate it and it perforated her stomach?

Please give more details regarding what cats cannot eat and what it does to their insides if they do....I may have some items on the 'safe' list that need to come off.

And I'll second that, good eye Nik, you probably saved that cat's life. Nobody can keep the unsafe stuff from a cat, it's a cat's job to find it, and they've got umpteenillion years of evolution in experience. All humans can do is react as fast as we can.

[snugglyevil.livejournal.com]

Hey...I'm the one that left the ribbon in a pile on the couch. I just totally wasnt thinking because she was not in the room when I left and am too used to old cats now that chew bags instead of ribbons anymore.

I feel so horrible.

[christianet.livejournal.com]

Aww, honey. I'm glad she's OK.

But that sooo sucks, nonetheless. *hugs*

[ysobelle.livejournal.com]

It's not your fault, baby. Honestly. At all. She's just truly, wholly, short-bus stupid when it comes to these kinds of things.

[ysobelle.livejournal.com]

I wasn't home-- t'was Emily who sent me the, "Um, Nikk...?" text. I wouldn't have been home til 6 or 7, by which time, dumb-ass kitten would have been in considerably more dire straits. Then it would have been a fast ride to UPenn, and n even more serious situation for Tekiah.

And yeah, it was that pretty, fluttery ribbon I use on my corsets. But any kind of ribbon or thread or string is bad-- as it passes through their digestive tract, it doesn't dissolve, and ties them into knots inside until it causes really, truly, horrible damage.

[ysobelle.livejournal.com]

Oh-- and it hadn't perforated her. Yet.

[ysobelle.livejournal.com]

Thanks-- she needs all the help she can get.

[snugglyevil.livejournal.com]

I still feel guilt. Of course Tekiah will make me feel guilty for the rest of her life. Cats are good that way. Gremlin never let me live it down when I accidentally clipped her while trying to wrestle her into clipping her nails as a kitten.

Did you still want to go tomorrow?