The Great Capture

 

*Warning - graphic pictures of wounded cat*

First of two catch-ups.

It's been quite a couple of weeks. 

My poor baby Howl was attacked by a large feral tom. This tom has been hanging around for a long time, creeping in to nick their food and wee on everything. Years ago, I had a kitten who died horribly, though we never found the body. At the back of my mind, I sort of held to this idea that maybe this was him. Maybe he didn't die and he found his way home somehow. 

It was a silly idea. He looks very similar, but it couldn't have been him. I let it go on for far too long, until, one night, this big brute attacked Howl. I went out and broke it up, but a couple of days later, he was walking round the house with his tail dragging along the ground.

 

I took him to the vet and explained what happened, but the vet missed the wound and thought he'd been hit at the base of the tail with something. He prescribed painkillers and sent us home.

Two days after that, I found Howl licking his tail in the corridor. His leg was raised, and that's when I saw the cut. I took him back to the vet, but by that point he'd developed a huge abscess. There's was this awful, grey sludge oozing from it and they had to put him under to get a proper look. It was heartbreaking having to leave him there, but I stayed until he was sedated. 

By the time they'd cleaned it all out, there wasn't enough skin left to stitch, so they kept him for five days to make sure he was recovering and to keep the wound clean. On the fifth day, I went to visit him. He had his own room, but it's a dog place, not a cat place. The poor sausage had to lie there listening to them bark all night. He really wasn't himself when I arrived. He's usually a really outgoing, content cat, but he was hiding at the back of his box looking so forlorn.

He perked up once he knew it was me, and we had a really good cuddle. But visiting was difficult because we were in lockdown and you had to get government permission to leave the house. The vet kindly said I could take him home if I learned how to dress the wound, so I got a crash course in how to treat it with iodine and honey, and how to wrap it with clingfilm and bandages. The trouble is that the wound is right at the top of his tail, so the bandages just don't quite cover everything and keep slipping off.

 

 

 

The injury is horrific, and I'm relieved he didn't lose his tail. He's been utterly amazing about it. He just sits in the bathroom and lets me clean the wound. One night, I was late, and he walked into the bathroom and sat down, waiting for me to do it. He's the smartest, bravest little cat I know.

 

 

My lovely friend, Olivia, lent me her cat trap and I kept the others in for a couple of nights whilst I tried to capture the feral. Eventually, we got him in the morning when he came sniffing around for food.

 

I felt kind of guilty about it. It's not easy removing a cat from its home territory and having in neutered. Mine are all spayed and neutered, but they had a home to come back to where they could recover. This guy was released in another part of town. But I'm sure he's doing fine. He's all muscle and extremely aggressive. There was just no way to keep him. He would have been impossible to domesticate and he would have kept attacking my cats. 

When I asked the vet how things went with his operation, they replied: He was a nightmare, very brutal. And these guys are used to dealing with stray cats.

Howl's still recovering. The medication gave him an upset stomach and we had a week of diarrhoea and vomiting, which he's mostly over. But it's been a traumatic time. He's been so good throughout. 

Some other cats seem to be moving into the neighbourhood now that the big tom is gone. They mostly seem pretty relaxed, but I may have to borrow the cat trap again in the future.

Treated myself to wine and tiramisu. There's a company in Kigali called KGL Tiramisu, and all they do is deliver tubs of the stuff around the city. It's delightful, and exactly what was required.