Sedgwick is slowly getting better. It’s been 5 days now since the dreaded morning and at this point, the wound is healing and we’re simple hit the “this is really annoying” stage. He’s tired of wearing the collar (not that it was ever particularly popular) and most of all, I think that he misses the ability to groom himself and scratch his face. I’ve gotten into the habit of scratching his face for 10 minute intervals every few hours, which seems to appease his need to pull off the collar. Between that and the hot-packing of the wound 4x per day, I am spending a lot of time sitting on the floor next to the pillow-bed I put out for him.

Giving him the drugs has been a pain in the butt as well. I feel really guilty about being so heavy-handed and he, well, he just hates the pills more than anything else. The first few days I tried to be cajoling and explanatory about it (lots of rationing with him, in German, as if he understands that), but the last few days (after he really bit me on Friday), I’ve determined that I really just need to wake him from a deep sleep, push the antibiotics down his throat and hope he doesn’t spit it up again. Every time I do it, I think of the silly Seinfeld episode where Kramer is taking dog pills for his cough.

Today was a bit of a rough day. It started with Sedgwick (the older, bigger of my two cats) climbing in bed at 2 AM and at first, just cuddling. OK, no big deal on that part as he often snuggles into bed. After about 20 minutes though, he started a rather extended and extensive cleaning routine that even in my half-sleep, I thought was a little odd.

And while sparing you the rather unappealing (= disgusting) details, this morning was messy and as soon as the vet opened their doors at 9 AM, I made an emergency appointment. Sedgwick had to stay and have surgery for a ruptured abscess between his stomach and hind-leg region. They shaved a good portion of him for both the anesthesia drip and monitoring tools, plus of course, where he needed to have the abscess removed and cleaned out. I picked him up this evening and he is “resting comfortably” though I can’t imagine that wearing one of those elizabethean collars is comfortable in any way shape or form. The home care for the next 7 to 10 days is going to be rough not only on him, but the other cat and me as well.

Speaking of the other cat, Sidney spent most of the day just beside himself, in that his big brother was missing. After I came back from the vet sans Sedg, Sid walked around the apartment yowling for a good hour (which wasn’t terribly conducive to me getting a lot of work done). He finally fell asleep in Sedg’s spot on my desk for a while, but then started searching the apartment again after a few hours. Now that Sedgwick is home, Sid wants to be all lovey and happy that Sedg is home, but Sedg is just cranky. Not sure if Sid gets that.

At any rate, crisis averted, of course, and ultimately it wasn’t that bad (“That’s what you think!” Sedgwick is thinking; actually he’s more thinking “Dass denkst Du!”). It could have been a lot worse had the abscess ruptured internally or if the infection had gone into his blood stream. I’ve been a stress case most of the day, as you can imagine, and oddly, more of a wreck since I’ve been home with the patient. While not one of those crazy old cat ladies, I do have a particular bond that comes from working from home and having Sedgwick and Sidney around me most of the time.