Paw and Claw

Skook and Paliki have never been the best of friends. It’s not that he doesn’t like cats. He and Chainsaw adored each other. When we’ve walked the neighborhood there are cats that come when he whistles – cats that never let me get within a hundred feet of them. But Skook and Paliki … something about their personalities just doesn’t groove. They either ignore or avoid each other depending on how the relative space around them can best be navigated.

This week, unfortunately, Paliki is really getting on Skook’s nerves. Normally she’s an indoor/outdoor cat, coming and going at her own whim. On Sunday I noticed that she was favoring one of her front paws. A quick examination determined that said paw was messed up. It was swollen and the outside toe was sticking off at an angle. Monday, Presidents’ Day, I took her to the vet and discovered that she’d somehow gotten an infected cut and dislocated a toe. The vet instructed me to give her antibiotics twice a day, painkillers as seemed necessary and keep her inside. Paliki came how sporting a nifty blue bandage around her right front paw. She got the bandage off within a couple of hours of being home. She pulled off the two bandages Nizzibet and I replaced it with. She hates the antibiotics and the painkiller makes her foam at the mouth if the pill doesn’t go down the first time. And she really doesn’t care for this being kept in stuff.

Skook says that normally Paliki sleeps while Nizzibet and I are off at work. She’s not doing that this week. This week she’s down in the basement bugging Skook to let her out three or four times a day. Being nocturnal by nature, he’s not appreciating all this attention. He’s been out of the house right at sundown for the last two days. He was gone before I got home tonight. He got some peace today since I’d dropped the cat off at the vet for a check up on my way to work. She spent the whole day there, no doubt complaining about it the whole time, and I picked her up at about six. I’d planned to be there by at least 5:30 but one of our clients called at 4:53 with an emergency that needed to be negotiated. That kept me in the office until 5:30. It poured on the way to the vet. We don’t have a car so I took the cat most of the way there and back on the bus but there’s enough of a walk (and a wait) between the bus stop and the vet’s office that I got soaked. Paliki stayed dry in her carrier and mostly kept her discontent to herself.

(Funny the things you notice. Another client at the vet’s was given his pet back and told that he had a really great cat. My darling Paliki doesn’t get that sort of compliment. It hurts my feelings a bit. I can’t really argue. Her charm is discreet.)

Poor Skook. Paliki’s got to be in for another four or five days. The garage is even less of an option since DoubleM gave us a lawn mower and yard tools.