Monday, March 5, 2012

A Sad Tail...

Nothing can send me into a frenzy quicker than an animal in distress. Remaining 'calm' through a crisis is much easier said then done, and last evening I once again had the challenge laid before me with my little Skipper Doodle!

After a long day of meetings and stress, I found myself on the telephone finishing up the day's business with a friend. Business conversation turned into our casual chat, which was after 10:30 of course, because that's when we have the TIME to catch up. Luckily for both of us, we keep the same nightly schedule.

I sat on the couch in the living room, chatting away, with animals all around me. Nothing is more soothing then sleeping companions next to you, that's for sure. Little Skipper quickly joined the ranks of sleepy time pets and settled in on my lap. That's when the call of nature hit.

Excusing myself I fulfilled nature's request. As I turned and shut off the bathroom light, I had my back to the hinged side of the door and began to pull it shut when I heard an ear piercing MEOWCH! As I quickly turned around I saw fur flying and cats running everywhere. Immediately I thought a cat had leaped on another cat. We have screamers in the house...for those cat lovers, you know that a screamer is a cat that never really gets touched but vocalizes as if he's being murdered!

As I rounded the corner to see "who" was yelling I saw a cowered little kitty, with tail whipping side to side and big black eyes staring right at me. I knew immediately that Skipper was hurt...something got him...something happened!

I quickly started towards him, but he zipped by me into the living room. My approaching energy set him into an escape motion, rather than a comforting one. I knew immediately I needed to take a big breath, calm down  or I wasn't going to get a hold of this cat to see what was wrong. In the meantime, we have the other cats picking up on this increasing energy level, and I didn't want an 'attack' to happen. Skipper was clearly in pain, and in defense mode.

I came into the room and once again was faced with a little cat, big pupils, arched back and tail a whipping side to side. I took a deep breath, and calmly said his name. "Skipper Doodle...what HAPPENED?" Everything from that moment on changed. He ran towards me, and reached up on my pant leg like he always does to be picked up. I swept him up in my arms and rushed him up the stairs to the bathroom, where I knew he'd be isolated and we could get him calmed down to assess him.

That's where I noticed the big bloody spot on his tail. And I knew he was in pain and confused.

We rushed him to the emergency clinic, where it was quickly decided he would need about 3" of his tail amputated. With bone protruding, they gave us the sad news, and we watched our little Skipper Doodle be carried back to the surgery area. I was torn between waiting there and coming home. I couldn't be with him, I couldn't hold him, comfort him...I could only sit in a waiting room and wait...and wait...and wait.

At 4:00 am we received a call from the hospital that he had gone through the surgery well and was waking up. They would call us around 7:00 am and let us know when he would be released. I frantically got a room ready for him while Joe went to pick him up.

By 9:30 Skipper was back home conehead and all. When we let him out of the carrier he went ballistic, thrashing about with the cone on his head, trying to back out of it all the while backing into walls with of course his wounded tail. When I asked why it wasn't bandaged, Joe quickly responded, "It was..for about 3 minutes!".

We removed the cone and decided someone will just have to be with him 24 hours until the healing process is over. He's a very active boy, and not someone who understands calmness. This makes the rehabilitation even more challenging, but we are getting through it.

I think the most important lesson here is about the power of the energy that we possess, and how we choose to use it, can determine the outcome of an event. I realize that if I remain calm, and don't get excited he will remain calm as well. He's extremely playful, despite the pain he is obviously in, but we will keep in on his pain meds, and remain calm. And hope that there is truth in the saying, "cats heal quickly".