Mary, queen of cats

My darling cat and I are having some issues. I recently came to the conclusion that Mary does not like me – she merely tolerates me because I am the local “take-away counter”. I discussed this conclusion with my partner and he did not disagree.

Mary and I always had a bit of a strange relationship. She is so much daddy’s little girl. She looks at my partner with complete and utter adoration in her eyes and it is clear that she worships him. The moment I touch her or look at her, she starts flicking her tail. Sometimes she would simply get up and move to a different spot, sometimes she would move to a different spot and settle with her back to me, sometimes she simply walks away, sometimes she would lick herself where I touched her.
In the beginning when she joined our little family, I was the third wheel in the relationship. At one point it actually made me feel resentful towards my partner because the cat liked him better than she liked me.

It was a long, hard journey to build a bond with her, but eventually it happened. That was until recently when it dawned on me that she really actually does not like me, she just tolerates me for the sake of it.

Mary and I are now in the process of rebuilding our relationship and it is a struggle. Every now and again I have a breakthrough moment with her. Let’s hope it works!

Fast asleep under Daddy’s blanket, on Daddy’s side of the bed

Mary is so damn unpredictable. You simply never know how she will react when she sees, or is confronted with, another animal. It can be anything from literally soiling herself, to blatantly ignoring the other animal, to absolute fierce aggression! There really is no telling.

Last Saturday we were on our way out to pick up my sister and her boyfriend for a late lunch, when we heard some terrible cat “screams” outside our apartment. Since it sounded nearby Mary’s window, I ran outside in my high-heeled boots to come to Mary’s rescue. My first thought was “oh heavens, she is under attack!!”.

What greeted me outside was not something I expected. Mary was clearly the aggressor in a very serious fight between her and another cat I have not seen before. It was pretty wild and clumps of her fur were all over the parking area. I shouted at her and the other cat took off, with Mary in hot pursuit. I eventually managed to catch up to the two rolling balls of flying fur and separated them. I picked Mary up and took her inside. Madam was all wide-eyed and wired. We immediately inspected her for damage and found two of the other cat’s claws embedded in her skin. But fortunately, there was no real damage that would require a trip to the vet. We locked her inside and went our merry way.

We got home about 5 hours later and Mary was visibly docile and not herself. We have witnessed this behaviour before and knew immediately that she was hurt somewhere. She was shaking her head continuously and there was dried liquid in her ear. Yet, we could not find anything other than a slight swelling on the side of her face.

Sunday morning we noticed the swelling had increased considerably. That meant one thing. A trip to the vet again. I am pretty sure that Mary is the vet’s most regular patient.

Our regular vet was not there and Mary saw a new female vet. The vet concluded that the swelling is an abscess. We briefly hashed it out – this was not an abscess. First off, there were no puncture wounds, secondly, an abscess does not form this quickly and thirdly, she had no fever (a common symptom of an abscess). The vet decided to draw some fluid from the swelling to determine what it was: pus would be indicative of an abscess, where as blood would not. Unfortunately, Mary had to have her beautiful soft ruffle shaven.

The fluid that was drawn from the swelling was just blood. The diagnosis was a ruptured gland. Mary was given a broad spectrum antibiotic, and if the swelling did not abate after a day or two, the gland would need to be removed. This is a tricky and delicate operation as there are many nerves on the side of the face.

The good news is, the swelling was down by Monday evening. Crisis averted. The bad news is, Mary has a bald patch on the side of her face again.

Mommy’s beautiful little scrapper.

Ready for attack (look at those wild eyes!)

Target acquired

ATTACK!

A docile Mary after the fight, when we got home 5 hours later

Waiting for the vet

The vet inspecting the swelling, before Mary being shaven
Back home, one very unimpressed and unhappy kitty (shaven spot on the right)

Bald patch

I know it has been quite a while since I have posted anything on Mary’s blog. I have good reason – I have been preoccupied and consumed by trying to stop the seal cull in Namibia.

But something happened last night that reminded me that I must make time to post on Mary’s blog at least once a week. Part of owning a cat means putting up with the fact that cats puke every now and again. Mostly they do this just after they have eaten grass or if there is a fur ball in their digestive system that is due to be expelled.
Unfortunately this is the part that I really don’t particularly enjoy – I have a weak stomach and I find cleaning up any form of bodily fluids (human or non-human) kind of gross. Okay fine, not kind of, just plain gross. I swear one day, if I ever have children, I don’t care how poor I am, I will hire someone to change nappies and mop up any bodily expulsions.

I woke up last night when I felt my left arm lying in something wet and cold. Upon closer investigation (which took about 2 seconds), I realised my sweet, sweet Mary puked on me while I was blissfully sleeping. I don’t know how on earth I slept through it as the racking and coughing and wheezing and choking sounds she makes as a prelude to puking is rather….. hard to miss or ignore. The worst is, it was mostly soggy biscuits with a teeny little fur ball all mixed together in gob.

After I cleaned it up, my partner said I should have taken a photo of it. I hardly think this is the kind of thing I want to be reminded of – looking at all the goo knowing she left that little gift on me while I was sleeping.

One look at her face though, makes everything forgiven!

Mommy’s pretty little puker