Edgy Mama

I brought Houdini home late today. He seems much better than he was yesterday, in that his breathing is less labored. The vet’s concern has been that he hasn’t eaten on his own, but once at home, I got him to eat some torn-up bits of cheese.

Houdini is happy to be home, but he’s not happy about the crate. He cried quite a bit at first, which upset the kids. Now he’s calmed down. He did manage, even, to drag himself into the tiny litter box, but then he spazzed out and got litter in his food and water bowls and all over the crate. The lady at the cat store told me to go with this certain type of litter because of its absorbency, but I might need some of the recycled newspaper pellets. They’re bigger and less likely to get kicked all over the place by a cat with a fractured pelvis. Plus it’s always fun to let your feline piss on yesterday’s news.

Thus, this week, I become Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy in a big way. Imagine a giant muskrat caring for a small cat. All I need is the full-sized white apron that Nurse Jane wore. Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy is a character from “Uncle Wiggily’s Storybook,” which was one of my favorites as a child. Uncle Wiggily is a rabbit gentleman who dresses quite nattily in a top hat and carries a cane. Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy is his sidekick and a muskrat. The twosome have adventures and teach life lessons to the animal children of the forest.

At one point, I tried reading some of the Uncle Wiggily stories to my kidlings, but they found them rather dull.

Anyway, I’m feeling rather dull in the head so I think it’s time for bed. Anyone have any ideas for my parenting column this week?

Not worse, but not much better. My kitty is still at the animal hospital. My girl and I went to see him this afternoon. He was clearly happy to see us and respond to our rubbing and love, but he’s looking pretty rough. He’s off oxygen but still breathing heavily. He’s not moving around much, and, in fact, had peed all over himself. He hasn’t eaten much. We just have to wait and see how he is tomorrow.

My dear, sweet marmalade kitty was hit by a car today. We think he’s going to be okay. He’s still at North Asheville Animal Hospital, which rocks, particularly in emergency situations. I hope he’ll be coming home tomorrow. The good news is that he only sustained some internal bruising and a fractured pelvis. The bad news is that the fracture will require me to keep him imprisioned in a large dog crate for six to eight weeks while the bones re-knit themselves.

We named the cat Houdini for the obvious reasons. Since he was a bitty kitty he has managed to escape confinement. I have no clue, other than drugs, how I’m going to keep him in a 2 x4 foot cage for so many weeks. I think if I put the cage on the screen porch and remove all the furniture so there’s nothing he can jump on if he escapes, it might work. I’m going to have to be one vigilant cat nurse. And then there’s training the kids.

Here’s how the accident happened, as far as I can reconstruct. We live in a quiet, low-traffic hood. Even so, Houdini is quite wary of cars (unlike the Bisc, who has no fear). But there’s a lot of construction going on around here, and the women who, luckily, saw Houdini get hit, said there were suddenly lots of trucks and cars coming up the street. They think Houdini got spooked by a truck and darted out after it passed, going into our yard, only to be hit by a car behind the truck. We hardly ever have two vehicles moving one after the other in this hood, much less three or four, so I imagine Houd was as surprised as anyone when there was a car behind that truck.

I don’t think the vehicles were moving very fast, which is good. Also, it’s wonderful that he was seen, not just by the sisters standing in their mom’s driveway, but by a neighbor who was driving one of the cars, and by the construction manager working on the house across the street from us. All of them knew the cat and knew he was ours. Also, luckily, E-spouse was home, and while one of the sisters stayed with Houdini, who was hiding under a bush next to our house, the other got E-spouse. Then her sister drove him and Houd to the nearby Animal Hospital. Within 15 minutes of the accident, my kitty had an i/v and a dose of pain killer. Gotta love the high-tech animal hospitals. I swear I talk to the vets there more than I do to my pediatricians.

In other news, my high school reunion was fun, although, as always, there were a number of faces I missed. It seems that there are people who go to reunions and people who don’t. Not that I don’t love seeing many of these folks every five years. I do.

I had not seen one friend, H, in probably 12 years, so she was the highlight of my night. She teaches middle school science in the Denver public schools and rocks kids’ worlds.

My biggest regret of the evening was that I didn’t eat much. I never do at parties, which is surprising, because my mouth is never closed. It’s just occupied with other activities. There was a Mexi food spread, and I do love Mexi. I even took a photo of the vat of fat, therwise known as cheese dip.

I’ll update y’all on the Houd tomorrow. In the mean time, send healing vibes to my sweet kitty.