Hello Dear Reader,
Todays post contains a public service announcement that I should have known already, are you ready?
Don't touch a stray cat even if it is the cutest, fluffiest, biggest, ginger and white kitty cat you've ever seen, don't be fooled into believing it is friendly and loves a pat just because it is all smoochy and loving the pat you just gave it. Next second this was happening-
So after we had found this gorgeous cat on the way home from our usual afternoon doggy walk, I approached it to see if it had a collar on, it did indeed and there was a phone number on it, so I rang the number and the owner said that they were away but their daughter was house sitting. So they said they would ring her and tell her where their cat "Simba" was. Unfortunately the daughter was at the gym and it took her a while to get to me. By this stage Simba had walked out from behind the hedge and was making his way slowly but surely towards the road, I must have put my hand down to direct it away from the road and that is when he attacked.
The outcome was 6 puncture wounds from teeth just above my wrist and two scratches up higher on my arm. It bled terribly so I walked back home and ran my arm under running water for a couple of minutes, then blotted it with some paper towel. By that stage the daughter of the owners was calling me and I met her where I had last seen Simba, he came immediately to her call and she put him in her car and drove off. I went back inside to tend to my wounds. I knew within half an hour that I was in trouble, the aching and throbbing had started from my wrist right up towards my armpit.
I knew if I had gone to the emergency department I would have just sat there all night and probably most of the next morning, so I took some anti-inflammatory's and some paracetamol and went to bed. I tossed and turned all night as I just couldn't get into a position to get my arm comfortable. As soon as our doctors surgery opened at 8.30am the next morning, I rang to book an appointment only to be told that they didn't have any tetanus vaccines as their fridge that kept all the vaccines had gone down on them the previous week. I then phoned three other doctors to see if I could make an appointment but no appointments were available, at that stage I thought I might have to go to the emergency department after all. I rang another doctors on the peninsula and I was able to get an appointment for that afternoon at 4.20pm, nearly 24 hours from when the cat attacked me.
The doctor was excellent and very caring, he was positive the puncture wounds had missed the tendon so that was a relief, I got a Tetanus shot with a bonus Whopping cough vaccine as that is how it comes these days. The wounds were dressed and he gave me a script for antibiotics. That night was just awful, the pain was just terrible with 10/10 shooting pains going from my fingertips to my shoulder, I dreamt at one stage that my arm had to be amputated because they couldn't stop the infection. The doctor told me to draw a line around the infection to see if it was getting bigger or smaller and also asked me to make another appointment for Saturday just incase things went pear shaped.
I couldn't go to work Thursday or Friday because I was in too much pain and I couldn't move my hand or arm without pain. Finally by Saturday morning the pain wasn't quite as bad and I could see the redness around the wound starting to retreat. I cancelled the Saturday appointment telling them that it looked like the infection was responding to the antibiotics.
I can't blame the cat, it must have felt intimidated and lashed out like all cats do if they feel they are cornered. But this was a very big wake up call to me and I will never approach a strange cat again, the end.
Have you experienced something similar?
Have a lovely day,
💙Fi