Abbi was born into this world breech. I remember my husband, then boyfriend, calling me on the phone telling me Spruce was in labor. I remember telling him what to do in the event of a breach, I said I'd be right there and hung up the phone and sped over the causeway to attempt to get there to see some of the kittens being born.
By the time I got there 3 kittens had come into the world. Spruce was laboring into her fourth kitten. I think fate had a hand to play in the birth of Abbi as she came out about ten minutes after I got there... and she was breech.
I've seen calves birthed breach a couple of times and some sheep and a couple kittens but had never personally helped in any of them. After I got a firm but careful grip I helped birth Abbi and laid her down next to Spruce. Spruce almost immediately went into delivering for the last kitten, completely ignoring the kitten she'd just given birth to. I picked Abbi up and cleaned her face and rubbed her and within a few moments a little mew came from her mouth.
She was an orange tabby cat, and I claimed her as mine. When she was just barely old enough to wean, I took her home to meet my man-cat Edward. Per typical Edwardism, he was thoroughly unimpressed. But all kittens are super cute and she became a favorite for both Edward and I.
Shortly after I noticed a little pin sized hole in her shoulder. Not knowing what it was exactly I made a mental note to just keep an eye on it. It's a good thing I did because that little tiny hole gradually grew bigger until it eventually hit the size of a pencil eraser head. Until I could figure out what it was I made her a couple kitty sweaters from my socks to keep her from licking the wound.
I came home with a friend from work equipped with tweezers, a scalpel, clindamycin, and bandages thinking I was going to be draining some sort of abscess. When I got there my sister came out with Abbi in her arms and informed me that her wound had moved. I knew exactly what it was. I had my friend hold her down as I pressed down around the outside of the hole in her shoulder. As soon as I saw a black thing stick its head out I gently grabbed it with tweezers and started to pull. That sucker had a pretty tight hold for how what it was!
After almost losing it, it was completely out and drowning in a half drank bottle of water. I bandage her wound up and gave her a lengthy researched dose of clindamycin. Put a sweater on her and went to show Reed. She had a speedy recovery and was no worse for the wear. Note: Research Bot Fly Larvae
A few months of the larvae incident, we moved to a different location and had just finished bringing the cats over. We decided to go run a couple of errands after we had put a few boxes in their places. I think we were gone for maybe 20 minutes or so before we got back and heard little mews of distress. We started our search for the orange furball immediately. I ended up finding her in a room that had some fishing poles, one of which was set up with a Sabiki rig.
I found Abbi attached to the end of one of the hooks gripped to the side of a mattress so she didn't hang off the line by her cheek. I picked her up and Reed and I went into action. After cutting the line we started to wrap her in a towel to keep her safe. From there it was a serious of trial and error to figure out how to get this tiny hook out of her mouth. The amazing thing about this is as soon as we got the hook out, she went straight to her bowl and ate some food seemingly unaffected by the event.
From there her lives have been a roller coaster of ups and downs and near misses. She is truly the epitome of 'Curiosity kills the cat.' We love her in the 'stop being so curious and kill all of your nine lives before we get too attached kinda way.' Out of all the joking of her being the red headed step cat, and us always trying to sell her or even give her away for free because of all her shortcomings, she is still here with us. Living as our little ass backwards bitch, Abbi.
No comments:
Post a Comment