The cat's surgery could not be moved up. Tomorrow's the day. It's a shame to make this cat wait 6 days after the bloodwork came back positive, before draining this abscess. I guess it couldn't be helped. If you're booked up, you're booked up. Now she has to go through all this again. More pain from post op recovery. But she's a survivor. Prefers no help from me, or anyone else. The landscape man showed up about an hour ago, followed by a truckload of dirt. They are bringing 6 loads today. He will be back tomorrow with a bobcat to spread it out, but won't show up until 9 am. Hopefully I'll be gone and back from the vet by then. The only better timing is if they didn't come at all until next week. But at least it's getting over with soon. Football games are over until Nov 7th. This has been a stressful month.
Maybe. I hear noise in the background, meaning load #4 just arrived. Two more to go. Hope there is some dirt left over when they finish. I need to snatch some this evening and fill a couple of holes they will miss tomorrow. Load #3 delivery
As soon as they delivered the last load of dirt yesterday, the landscape man showed up with his Bobcat. Spread about 10% of the dirt around. Some over top of one place I was planning to fill, and left the Bobcat parked on top of the other place. That took care of that job. I asked them to leave 3-4 yards for me. Woke up at 5:00 this morning. Missed two good chances to catch the cat before 6:00. One last trick left in the book got her just in time. She had blood on the side of her face with the tooth problem. Maybe the abscess broke through. Maybe she scratched it open. Anyway she is off for surgery. Should finish before noon. I hope they keep her a few hours afterwards. One day I may explain how I ended up with this cat, and why she is so difficult to catch. The landscaper started working about an hour ago. They are peeling up the old St. Augustine sod, where the gravel will be, and piling it up. I did not ask them to do that, but glad they did. Will sow rye grass for this winter. Hopefully I can salvage some of the old sod if it survives until spring.
I didn't know this but they were planning on putting in gravel also today. Peeling off the grass they cut the cable going from the satellite dish to the house. This is a problem with having a General Contractor. I tell him things and he tells the subcontractors. Sometimes he forgets. I also forgot to remind him or to tell the Bobcat man directly. I do not want to call the satellite people to fix this, because I know what will happen. This is an old installation and they have been bugging me to update it anyway. It was clearly not installed "up to code" either. They only buried the cable about 4 inches. They may say I need a whole new system and upgraded because they don't offer whatever anymore. I'm going to try to fix/splice it myself. I just want everyone to go away for a few days.
This week is more like a Bullet Train. I think the gravel is done already. Emergency Fix. So I can put this off for 10 more years. I have everything but the cable. Lowes this afternoon. The vet just called. The cat did fine. Pick her up at 4pm. I took this cat to the UGA vet school last December because she wasn't eating. Did they not check her teeth? There should have been evidence of tartar in December, 'cause there is a lot of it now, but it's all in the back. You have to get her mouth wide open. Oh wait, there is no small animal dentist there. They are probably not allowed to check teeth.
The cat is doing really well. She's not eating, but that's to be expected the first day, they said. She hates wet cat food anyway and that's all she's supposed to get. I wonder if they realize she swallows the dry food whole. Unfortunately she is exceptionally afraid of me tonight. Likely because there are stitches in her mouth as a constant reminder. She is supposed to get 2 pain meds orally starting tomorrow, and one preventative oral antibiotic starting tonight. The latter only for 5 days. It's just not going to happen. At least not tonight. She is hiding behind the couch right now. You could never tempt her with food. That's what her previous owner did. Maybe tomorrow will be another day. I guess I will just hope her own immune system can cope with a secondary infection. The pain now should be less than it was with the abscess. The vet is supposed to call tomorrow. Don't know what to tell them. I should probably lie and tell them things are going along swimmingly.
Glad to hear she is home. She has gotten this far doing things her way and will "sink or swim" on her own. What is her name? I hope it's not "Cat".
Let me think. What do I call her most often. Where Are You? She used to answer to that name. Not anymore. She used to stay just out of arm's reach, about 3 feet. Now it's 20 feet. She's not taking any chances. The last trick in the book to catch her yesterday was to sit on the floor and pretend I'm going to brush her. It isn't easy getting up off the floor with both arms around a squirming cat. Seriously though, I usually call her Little One. It is sad that people who constantly chase animals when they are young, can ruin them forever as pets. Just like Rusty (the goat) and his twin sister, Pickles. Similar thing to playing rough with dogs when they are puppies.
According to the vet's report, she had 9 teeth removed, some from all 4 "quadrants." Most because of "resorption." I never heard of such a thing before. "In a condition known as 'tooth resorption' the dentin in a single tooth (or several simultaneously) erodes and eventually becomes irreparably destroyed. Over time, all areas of an affected tooth, from root to crown, may become involved. Tooth resorption is a common condition, affecting an estimated 20 percent to 60 percent of all cats and close to three-quarters of those five years of age and older. The cause, says Jennifer Rawlinson, DVM, chief of the dentistry and oral surgery section at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, is unknown." Cats have 30 teeth. I suppose this will happen again.