Feeling good

I’m in the rare position of being able to pat myself on the back today. You should try it — it’s a good stretching exercise.

Leaving that aside, my particular warm inner glow comes today courtesy of what happened on Saturday night. We were just getting ready to settle the kids down to sleep when there was a knock at the back door. It was our next door neighbour, somewhat distressed. The reason for her distress was twofold. Firstly, there was, in her own words “A ginger cat, dying in her backyard” — and she had to rush off to an emergency at work.

Di went to check on the cat while I headed to our neighbours two removed, because I knew they had a ginger cat. They weren’t in, but the cat was still there, not moving and barely breathing. A quick but cautious check by yours truly showed that it had quite bad fur and no collar, and a quick call to the local vet brought forth the offer that I should bring it in. Based on the smell, the fur and the lack of collar, I presumed it was feral, and carefully popped it into our spare cat cage. The vet confirmed that it had tick paralysis, but a quick scan revealed it was microchipped. This had me quite worried, as I still hadn’t managed to catch our nearby neighbours in… and I knew they had an elderly cat. The vet took it, sedated it and waited to get the details from the chip (which he naturally couldn’t tell me) — if the owner still wanted it, they might be facing some expensive treatment, but if it was a genuine stray, he’d probably put it down.

A nervous night’s sleep ensued, and I headed around on Sunday morning. My nearby neighbours were in, but so was their cat. I was somewhat deflated, but they mentioned that someone further up the street had lost a similar animal early in the week — but they thought it was a younger cat. That left me with a mystery, but not for long — in short order the people further up the street came down to thank us personally for finding their cat and taking it to the vet. Turns out it wasn’t a young cat, but an old tom, and one with only one kidney to boot. It had gone missing on Monday, and by Sunday they’d more or less given up hope of seeing it again. According to the vet, said pussy cat has had a strong and positive reaction to the removal of the tick — so it’s all looking hopeful from here.

Or, to put it another way: Yay!