Cat Scratch Fever!

Is everyone singing that song now? I am...

Well, the story begins with Fluffy Tail. Fluffy Tail is a neighborhood cat (I think she's a stray but Derek seems to think she belongs to one of the neighbors) that terrorizes Owey through the window. Seriously I have flashbacks from my childhood when my sister's Labrador Retriever, Dexter, came crashing through the window and running up the stairs chasing after my cat when these two (Fluffy Tail and Owey) start fighting through the window. The kids have named Fluffy Tail because obviously that is her distinguishing characteristic (the other cat that roams the neighborhood is affectionately referred to as "Curly Tail". So Fluffy Tail and Owey pretty much fight through the windows on a daily basis. I usually try to run outside and scare her away - we've tried glasses of water, spraying her with the hose, kicking a beach ball at her and shaking the bushes. She always comes back. And many times she comes back at 2am in the morning.

So last night I think they started to go after each other through the front window around 11pm. I opened the front door to scare Fluffy Tail away and Derek came into the study to get Owey to calm down. For some reason, he tried to pick her up. Why he picked her up, I don't know. I asked him that when I saw him trying to dislodge her claws and mouth from his hand and arm. She was clamped down and they both twisted this way and that and she finally dropped to the ground. He had several small puncture wounds which we cleaned up with running water. Then I sprayed some Dermoplast on it to try to get the pain to subside.

This afternoon I called Derek to see if he'd be home early to mow the lawn. He wasn't going to be, so I tackled the yard all by myself (and did a pretty good job I might add!). I am trying to get the house ready for Amy's bridal shower and had some things planned for this evening. Derek called me around 5:30 to let me know he was on his way home. Then he says, "I think my hand is infected." I thought he was joking because I had completely forgotten about last night's episode. Then I realized he was serious. His hand was swollen and red with a 2 inch circle at the spot where she had bitten him. We decided to go pick up dinner and then head to the emergency room. As we got closer he decided that I should drop him off and then go get dinner and bring it back to him. It was a good plan because as everyone can imagine Friday night in the emergency room is fairly busy. So I headed off to a local fast food place (Raising Cane's - yummy!) and called Amy. She said to bring the kids over (thank God!) so that they didn't have to sit in the emergency room. I got back to the hospital about 7:45 and Derek was still waiting to be seen. They finally took him back and to my surprise they wouldn't let me go with him which I thought was weird. So I chatted with the people in the waiting room and watched SpongeBob Squarepants. That is not my favorite show and it's even more annoying when you cannot hear the words. I finally got sick of it and moved to the other side of the waiting room and found a magazine. He finally came out about 9:15 limping along because he had to get 2 shots, an antibiotic and a tetanus shot. Then we had 3 prescriptions to fill. He's in pain, but obviously not too much pain. He received another birthday present today in the mail, Guitar Hero Encore, Rock the 80s which he had to try out tonight.

So back to Fluffy Tail: I have a friend who was willing to make Fluffy Tail disappear (nothing sinister, just take her to the shelter), but for some reason we cannot bring ourselves to subject her to that fate. She's a beautiful cat, very loving and tame. She just really wants to be an inside cat in our home. Can't blame her, we have a nice kitty home! It's very well protected too.