Mary, queen of cats

One thing about Cape Town that seems to get to even the born and bred Capetonians, is the wind. Otherwise known as the Black South Easter or the Cape Doctor. This wind is a constant in summer and can get to strong that people have to hold on to poles just to keep up right.

Unfortunately, we live in the basin of the city where this Black South Easter turns. When it blows, trust me, you know it. This also means kitty gets locked inside. This also means we have a very, very unhappy cat on our hands who has no problem in letting us know exactly how unhappy she is about not having access to outside.  She keeps us up all night and howls non-stop. She drives us insane. It is not fun trying to sleep with a loudly complaining cat in the background doing her utmost to keep you awake. And of course, she no longer cares about being squirted. Mr. Squirty has lost its effectiveness.

When she is outside, she is in her element. And what she loves more than being outside, is if we are outside with her.

Recently, she came back from outside for a nibble. Her food was finished and when we did not jump up and give her biscuits, she went outside again. Ten minutes later I went to look for her and found her crunching on something (as in literally, you could her “crunch, crunch”). I first thought someone gave her a piece of meat or something and I panicked. Upon closer inspection, I saw she was eating a mouse, and the crunching sound was the head in her mouth. I felt insulted – we are obviously not important enough to share in the spoils of the hunt. No gifts brought to the lair (for which, I have to admit, I am eternally grateful!).

This morning, I noticed that she has a wound in her neck. It is a deep gaping hole. Fortunately the vet gave me extra antibiotics which I will give to her to keep infection at bay. If that does not help, it is back to the vet again.

The Hunter with the Hunted

The Wound

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

Late last night, Mary came in with the left side of her face full of blood (there was even blood on the door and all over the floor). We did not immediately notice – she jumped on the bed, refusing to look at us when we spoke to her, and the side with the blood was turned away from us. I don’t know how stupid she thinks we are, but we immediately figured she was trying to hide something. Upon closer inspection, my partner found the left side of her face wet and when he looked at his fingers, it was blood. We cleaned it up and found a deep red hole about 2mm in diameter, just behind her whiskers. Our minds raced in all directions and our imaginations ran wild. From running in to something, to a snake bite, to a cat fight, to pellets guns crossed our mind. We cleaned the wound as best we could (and kept her inside for the rest of the night) but we would have to take her to the vet the next day to make sure everything was okay. Even though the puncture wound was too small for stitches, it was deep enough to form an ugly abscess if left untreated.

So today after work it was off to the vet. Mary usually behaves like an angel when she visits the vet. She is any vet’s dream patient.
The only way the vet could see the puncture wound was to shave the area. *Pwhaaaaa* Mary was not happy and both my partner and I and the vet had to hold her down. I have not seen Mary that pissed off in a long, long time (if ever). Because she struggled so violently, her whiskers were shaven off as well. We had a bald patch, half whiskered, fat faced, sulking, angry kitty on our hands and we could not help but laugh!

The wound, the bald patch and the short whiskers

The good news is no one tried to shoot her with a pellet gun, no snake tried to make a meal of her – with the fur shaven one could clearly see a scratch leading from/to the puncture wound: a cat claw. Mary got an antibiotic injection and the wound should heal nicely.

Back from the vet, straight to her brown paper bag

I don’t know how many times we have taken Mary to the vet for one thing or the other. I am sure if we had to add it all up, we could have amassed a small fortune. But there is simply no price on Mary’s health and well being. I said to my partner last night – I am so incredibly, incredibly happy to know we can afford to take her to the vet when she needs to go. We don’t have to worry about how we are going to pay or trying to treat her ailments ourselves because we can’t afford to get her proper care. We are tremendously blessed in that regard. He was of the opinion that even if we could not afford to go to the vet, we would still be able to get her care at places like the PDSA (People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals) or PUPP (Project for the Upliftment of Pets and People) or one of the clinics serving communities in need ( such as Mdzananda in Khayelitsha). Not that I never appreciated what these places do, but it kind of brought home how unbelievably important the work is they do. If we had no money for vet care and there were no PDSA or PUPP, Mary (and we) would have absolutely no choice. That scares me. As my vet said to me tonight: there is not (comparatively) that much cruelty going on in South Africa, but there is a lot of neglect. And in my opinion, neglect often stems from a lack of available resources. Simply because a person is poor, does not mean they are incapable of loving animals as much as we who are not poor.

There are heaps of organisations out there doing good for and by animals. But please – make a special effort to give your support to the clinics who give vet care to animals who would otherwise have no help at all.