Sunday, May 13, 2007

Cat Craziness


Scamp and I were out playing in the yard a couple of days ago when an orange-colored stray cat appeared to play with our cat Scratchy. We named him Boots for the day, and he seemed friendly enough, even allowing both Scamp and I to pet him. He was a rather large cat with a large head and fuzzy hair that made him resemble a lion but was scruffy and matted from living outdoors.

Later on that evening, Scamp was petting him out in the yard when he bit her right arm. The cat was so big, he had gotten his entire mouth around her petite arm, leaving teeth imprints on top of her arm and a fairly deep puncture wound underneath. I, of course, smacked the cat away and ran to rescue Scamp. The wound wasn't too bad, but we called the doctor anyway. He told us to clean it really well then bring her to the office in the morning.

We took her in the next day, and another doctor wrote Scamp a prescription for an antibiotics since 80% of cat bites become infected and recommended we call Animal Control to catch the cat and test it for rabies. Otherwise, they may go ahead and give Scamp rabies shots!! I was almost in tears telling the doctor we could have caught the cat last night.

I immediately called Beef at home, who in turn called Animal Control and sat out a bowl of food for the MIA cat. As soon as we returned home, Beef found the cat under my car. The plan was for me to catch and hold the cat until Beef arrived with the cat carrier. The cat was not afraid of me, so I held him down fending off his attempts of biting me. I got away unscathed, but Beef took over the job of putting him into the carrier. As soon as he grabbed the cat, it began to flail and viciously scratch him. As I said before, it was a large cat, and it was taking everything Beef had to subdue him. My brave hubby saved the day by finally forcing the cat into the carrier. Then Animal Control arrived to take the cat to the pound.

The guy from Animal Control said we did the right thing by taking Scamp to the doctor because he has been hospitalized before by a cat bite. I do feel sorry for the cat, but we couldn't take a chance with Scamp. Beef has plenty of battle scars to show how brave he was for taking on a fierce "lion-of-a-cat" and living to tell the tale! Check out Beef's "manly" version of the story on his blog coming soon.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yikes. That looks like a lot of pain.

Glad that Scamp is doing ok though.

Sonya said...

Yowsy! Looks like the cat really got some good licks on Beef! I hope his wounds don't get infected and I certainly hope the kitty doesn't have rabies! That would be just awful!

Anonymous said...

Ouch!! That looks painful! I'm really glad y'all were able to get the cat off teh streets. I'm a huge cat lover but the stray vicious ones sure don't need to be out running about like that. I hope Scamp is okay and that your husband's arm heals quickly.

Mike said...

That's exactly why I'm scared of cats (and dogs). Hope your little one is OK.


Mike
http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com/

Stacy at Exceedingly Mundane said...

Oh wow, I am SO not a cat person and all of those scratches and bite marks look AWFUL. I am so glad you guys took her in and then caught the cat. When will you hear if the cat has rabies? How awful. Poor Scamp, I hope it is all healing and she's ok :)