Life is What Happens

Posted on by curioussteph

While you’re making other plans. Or so the saying goes, along with some of its many variants, including one favored by a childhood friend. “You wanna make the gods laugh, tell them your plans.”

There’s certainly been some of that going around my house recently. Illnesses, all thankfully resolved, technical glitches (likewise) and then today’s special event–cutting the cat while attempting to trim her matted fur. Many of you have met Lucy, she’s my nearly 20-year-old cat (Thursday is her birthday), and she writes her own post on Fridays.

Like many older cats (and people), she has some health issues and is less agile than she once was. One of the results of this is that she is no longer able to perform the fastidious grooming that cats are known for. The result: mats in her fur, or “mattresses” as she prefers to call them. At any rate, Lucy gets mats. Periodically, I do some grooming for her, with a tool called the Furminator, which actually works pretty well. Some of the other mats I can pull out by hand, provoking a squawk of indignation and its over.

And then there’s the big mat back by her tail. If it was a mattress, it would be queen size. I’ve been working on it without much success, and its so large that it can’t be combed or pulled out. But, its been growing out, and there’s now close to half an inch of unmatted fur between her skin and the mat. Time to cut it out. Or so I thought.

Unfortunately when that is what I did this morning, Lucy yelped and arched just as I was closing the scissors. My bad. The mat is gone, along with a long thin piece of her skin. I am so sorry, Lucy. Well, shit. She yelped and went back to drinking her water. Okay, maybe.

Upon further review, not okay, she’s got old lady skin, it tears, so what looks like a thin cut gapes badly when she moves. Not bleeding much, that’s good. If it was me, I’d steri-strip it and call it good. On a fur covered cat, it doesn’t work. I tried. Well shit. Sorry again, Lucy.

I called the vets office when they opened at 8, the receptionist offered an appointment with her regular vet tomorrow when she’s back in the office. No, I don’t think that will work. I eventually speak with the vet who is working, explain the wound, etc and she has us bring her over at noon. Very kindly, she allows me to go back in the treatment area with Lucy (sometimes it does help to be a retired MD), and stay with her. Carefully they clean things, trim hair with a quiet clipper, clean some more, numb her up, and put in some staples.

As it turns out, they almost never do this on cats without sedating them. But Lucy’s old, she has some kidney and thyroid issues, and anesthesia might easily be too much for her. Lucy was a champ, made it through well, the vet and her staff were quite amazed at how well she did.

We are home now, Lucy is now campaigning for dinner after a long afternoon’s rest, and BA and I are recovering. BA delivered some flowers and a card as a thank you to the vet and staff for working with us and through lunchtime. It’s very much appreciated.

Lucy can have as many mats as she wants for the remainder of her days, and I won’t cut them out. I feel crappy that this happened, relieved that its going to be okay for Lucy, grateful for the good help from our vet, and I’m just fine to skip any repeats. I’ve had cats in my life most of my life–just added up to 86 cat years, and this is the first time I’ve directly caused harm. I guess that’s pretty good.

Lucy after her difficult day
We may have used up another of her nine lives today, but Lucy’s looking pretty good!

There were two Ragtag daily prompts today, Sitcom, posted by Lorna, and my “substitute” prompt of Flexibility. Some of the oddness of today could have made its way into a sitcom, and I’m very content to cede the starring roles to a different ensemble. And then there’s flexibility. Oh yeah, lets deal with what is and go from there.

I still hope that tomorrow goes more according to plan than today. Meanwhile, this evenings plan is for a bowl of soup, and a quiet evening. Family bed with books and a mending cat.

21 thoughts on “Life is What Happens”

  1. I’m sure it was harder on you than Lucy. She’s a tough old girl, I’m not sure I’d have let them staple me without sedation! Glad to hear you are both recovering well this evening.

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    1. Phew. Stressful, and its working out okay. I am ready for a good nights sleep. Lucy is eating, drinking, nagging and right now hanging out. Tough kid. She’ll be posting again by friday.

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  5. Lucy, let your person know it’s OK. My human sometimes did this to me when I was very old and my curly, fine fur got matted. Once in a while she got my skin. It only hurt a second and I tried to tell my human, but I could tell all day she was worried and guilty and took me to the vet. It’s true, I never needed staples, but maybe because Australian shepherds are bigger than kitties. I know you’ll be fine and, like me, you’re lucky to have humans who love you so much. Well, I have to go back to the Enchanted Forest now. It’s so wonderful there, that even though we visit our humans and friends from time to time, none of us want to stay long. Much love to you, Lucy. Mindy T. Dog

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    1. Thank you Mindy, it’s nice to have a visit. Glad the forest is good. My brother Jules lives there now, too. I’m milking it a little now. Chicken, cream and cottage cheese for my dinner. And tomorrow mama Steph will make me some egg custard. Bedtime now. Thanks again for visiting. Sound like your human is a good one, too

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  7. What a day and so glad Lucy quickly got all the help she needed. When we had ageing cats we used a grooming glove daily. It gave them a gentle massage which made them purr and kept them free of any matting 💜🐈

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  8. Well, I know Lucy knows you were trying to help, not hurt her. You got off pretty easy and now you won’t do this anymore. It’s all good.

    Have a fabulous day and lots of healing hugs to Lucy. ♥

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  10. oh! I’m sorry Lucy got hurt. Midnight and Pinkie empathize too. I hope she heals quickly. sorry for your guilty feeling too — us humans mean well but we’re not perfect

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Published by curioussteph

June 2017: I started writing Curioussteph.com with this: By day, I'm a retired family physician turned body-oriented psychotherapist. I garden, travel, am owned by 2 elderly cats, figure skate and am training for my first triathlon. April 2020: Three years later, the two elderly cats have crossed the rainbow bridge, and we now have an 11 year old adoptee, Ziggy. I'm done with triathlon and skating for the time being, and I am still physically active, running, biking and walking. It's now the time of the coronavirus, which is affecting us all.