No more plastic bells...

Both cats ran into trouble today. It started with the my discovery, on waking up, that Superfund Cat had once again soiled himself to the point of needing a bath, and had spread his feces about the bathroom and a window sill, too. Shadow had gotten some of his feces on one of her paws, but she could be spot cleaned.

Superfund Cat's bath went easier this time. At least in part this was due to my having a better sense of how to do it - I placed a towel in the tub to give him some traction, and the water was warmer than last time, but he did not enjoy the experience. He shivered as I toweled him dry, so I held him to me until the heat came up, then moved him to the floor heating grate.

Once he stopped shivering and seemed okay, I wolfed down breakfast and ran out of the house for an appointment, coming back in an hour, and then this is a neat thing about giving him a bath: he fluffs out as he dries (he's a long hair). He kind of has his own fluff cycle.

Then about an hour ago I found Shadow sniffing about the floor and eating something. Closer inspection revealed a broken piece of the plastic bell from a cat toy at her feet, and it looked like she had eaten at least one other piece.

The internet was not much help, other than to say that this might be a problem. So I called the off-hour animal hospital to confer with them. If she had eaten this plastic, I should bring her in, they said. Plastic can cause an intestinal blockage, which can be fatal. The consult would be $125, and X-ray, should one be needed, would be over $200, and on top of that any other diagnostic or therapeutic measures that looked to be necessary.

I'm already a bit hard up for cash - I'm in debt to my credit cards for more than I care to admit, I don't have enough hours at work, and yesterday I learned that I lost several hours of teaching that had previously been assigned to me.

You can therfor imagine my relief when, in gathering my jacket, etc together prior to placing Shadow in the carrier I found the rest of the plastic bell. It had occurred to me that it might be helpful to have a complete bell to show the vet and give her a sense of what Shadow might have swallowed, and the bell on the toy I picked up was missing a piece the size of the piece I found earlier at Shadow's feet.

After calling the animal hospital back to say that I wouldn't be coming after all, I had the chance to sit and realize how very attached I have become to Shadow. The thought of her dying of this was very painful. My beautiful kitten.