Last night seemed pretty quiet until I decided we were so overdue to play with the cats that I really had to step up. So I did and brought out one of those wand toys you can purchase on-line. A nice fishing rod type with a tuft of feathers and bell dangling from a fishing line. Well, everyone was disporting themselves in a grand fashion with cats spinning in the air and running and jumping, when suddenly our gigantic Hopkins caught the toy. But he didn’t just catch the toy– it caught him. The entire thing ripped from my hands and followed him, feathery belled bit attached to his paw, the fishing line following, and the rod after.
I cornered Hopkins in the old bedroom and scruffed him to hold him still, because clearly the toy was firmly fastened to him in some manner I could not parse. I knew it could be dangerous if he kept running with the line and rod following him to cause further terror. He is a big boy, you know, over fifteen pounds of lithe and extremely healthy cat.
Husband came to help and shut us into the bedroom, (step one,) cut off the line to the rod, (step two,) then got a big fluffy towel to wrap Hopkins in, (step three.) Hopkins was very upset and growled at us, but I kept him scruffed. I knew husband didn’t have the close vision/focus to see what part of the toy was caught, and how it was fastened to the paw, and I knew my angle was all wrong, so I didn’t dare let go of the big beast. I sat down with Hopkins struggling in my lap and told him to calm down and praised and petted him while scruffing him and holding him firmly in his towel (with the one paw sticking out,) until he did. Bless him, he settled.
In the meantime the little black ferals, Jynx and Jasper, were ricocheting. Flinging themselves from corner to corner of the room in a frenzy. Leaping and bounding off the walls as though the gravity had been turned off in parts of the room! Peeing in panic! Pee spattering in the air and on the floor! Bottlebrush tails! Growls! Yowls! Jasper hit the full size screen sliding door and kicked it right from its tracks out into the yard, but fortunately husband instantly slid the glass door closed so we didn’t lose any cats outdoors in the dark.
“Call Jim!” I said to husband. (Jim is our next door neighbor and a good cat person.) He did, and Jim showed up in a jiffy. Husband wrangled the ferals out of the room at the cost of some blood. He had to catch and grab Jasper to remove him. Jasper was sirening and leaping, so that was less than ideal.
“Never saw cats do that before,” said Jim, watching a cat zing past his face.
Jim’s near vision could see the exact problem with the toy, and he got this little snap fastener part of the feather and bell arrangement loose from the inter-web of Hopkins’ paw while I held our gigantic cat still.
Just like that.
Whew.
It felt like magic.
Hopkins growled at Jim and hissed, but nothing more– maybe my firm mother cat grip on his nape was important here too. We thanked Jim profoundly, and he went off home to bed, while we talked to our cats, and soothed them. The fourth cat, Watson, sauntered up belatedly to check if there were any treats involved in our conversations.
But our little black feral Jasper was not willing to have dinner, and limps on his right rear paw. He can move about, but is definitely unhappy, and while he will let me handle the paw and leg, he has a sprained or pulled muscle, I believe. All four of his paws have fairly identical cool normal pads, and he doesn’t seem to mind my firm touch even on the leg he’s limping with, so I think it’s a weight bearing question. Husband worries that he grabbed Jasper’s leg too hard, though there wasn’t much choice– I was literally ducking my head as the little black guys bounced off the walls while I was holding Hopkins still. I myself wonder if Jasper strained a muscle kicking that screen door out into the night. Later in the evening though, Jasper did join us on the bed and purred to be stroked and petted.
This morning we talked with the vet and our Jasper has had his morning meal, is on a dose of Gabapentin to deal with trauma and pain, and we will observe him for a couple of days to see if he improves promptly.
Sometimes four cats is a circus.
robinwinter 