8/1: Suitical update at the bottom!!

Soooooo . . . Tigger is now recovering from a very serious, and very freak, accident. He managed to slice his skin open and had, what I thought at the time I found him, a three inch gash. “Maybe even four inches,” I told my husband. There was no blood and he hadn’t punctured any intestines as far as I could tell – he was curled into a ball and I couldn’t see it all. It appeared that someone tried to skin him. We had zero clue as to what he did! So off to Twain Harte Veterinary Hospital we went!

They couldn’t keep a cone on him so tried sending him home without since he wasn’t licking the stitches. But once he got home – yep. He popped one. Had to rush him back Friday afternoon for a staple.

I happened to be at the vet when he was going into surgery (I thought I’d stop by and snuggle with him if he was still waiting). Dr. Strand greeted me in the waiting room. “He’s on the table; Dr. Jackson is preparing to stitch him up. What did he do??” I said, “I literally have no idea but I will find out!” “Do you want to see it?” she asked. “YES!”

I was completely unprepared for what I saw. All three doctors, Dr. Strand, Dr. Jackson, and Dr. Crunk were in with him. His gash wasn’t three inches or even four. It was closer to SEVEN!

“Holy &^%$!” was my response.

Dr. Strand said, “It’s ugly but it’s just in the fat layer. He’ll be fine.”

Tigger had to stay the night and when I went home and started the search for what might have cut him. Not only do I want to make sure it never happens again but I want to make sure my three toddler grandchildren don’t get into it! And yes, find it I did.

About twenty years ago I make picket fence shutters for three windows – one of which is in the cat room. I put gate sized hook and eye latches for locking them. Have you ever noticed how sharp the ends of those hooks are? Yeah, me neither. The hook in the cat room somehow got flipped up and locked with the hook pointing up and out at a bit of an angle. There was cat hair and blood on it. Somehow – we think he was bug hunting – Tigger was on the window sill, jumped up, and impaled himself on the way down. Either his weight and trajectory or his struggle to free himself ripped him open seven inches.

So now we are at a new “normal:” Tigger is in a mesh, claw proof cat tent in the living room. I will never go back to a rigged up large dog kennel – having him in this tent is so much easier on all of us. I also ordered a Suitical Recovery Suit from Chewy.com which will arrive tomorrow. I’m hoping it gives him a more normal life for eating and drinking (his cone is starting to smell like Fancy Feast lol) if it doesn’t trigger “Kitty Flop.” I tried to rig up a baby onesie until it arrived but the velcro straps I added triggered a bad case of Kitty Flop. I’ll update as the experiments go along.

THE SUITICAL IS A HUUUUUUGE SUCCESS! I’LL POST PICS AND VIDEO LATER TODAY! YAY!