Bloody Trail (and some tears)

      This was the sight that awaited me outside my bedroom door on Wednesday. Drops of blood in various sizes, along with a couple of blobs of some other unidentified liquid. The bloody trail continued down the stairs, so I followed it, wondering why there was no yelling coming from anywhere nearby. At the end of the trail was the cat, sitting under the kitchen table and trying to shake off the blood-soaked fur on his left cheek.

      Mako is a fighter. He defends his home territory and his beloved family with ferocity and great courage, but he does so without front claws. So he is also a loser. I'm guessing that, amongst the neighborhood animals, he is something of a joke. Another cat seeing him approach would be a bit nervous--he weighs 15 pounds and is "big-boned" (if one can use that term for a feline). But the moment the yowling turns into paw-batting and claw-striking, the other cat realizes Mako is an easy target. Let me take a moment here to say for any PETA people out there that we did not declaw him--he came to us that way.

      About a week before these photos were taken, Mako had been in yet another neighborhood brawl and had a good-sized puncture wound on the side of his face to show for it. We were "keeping an eye on it" to see that it healed properly. Translation: we didn't want to pay for a vet visit unless absolutely necessary. Nathan kept telling us Mako really needed to see a vet. And we assured him we had the situation well in hand. Monday, his cheek started to get swollen and I said, "If it's not better in a couple of days, I'll take him in." (Eric, I think, preferred to let Mako take the risk of infection and death, rather than go the vet route. Death of the cat is the ideal solution in his mind.)

     While I called the vet Wednesday morning (two days too late), Mako sat by the front door itching his face and waiting to be let out. When he rubbed his cheek with his paw, fresh blood splattered over the area. The photo below looks like it's from a crime scene.

       I wish I could have gotten a good photo BEFORE the vet visit and resulting clean-up, but I had to settle for just the AFTER photo, which is this one:

      The vet informed us that Mako's original wound had resulted in an abcess, which then swelled until it literally burst out the side of his face (because we didn't take him in when we should have). So now, for the tears... we had to pay for a vet visit that included his clean-up, an anti-biotic, a cream for the wound, and some kitty pain medication. Next time, we'll know better, I guess, right?