Emergency Tail

My cats have been through a lot.

I affectionately call them my hand-me-down kitties, as I acquired them each as adults when their owners could no longer keep them.

They are old. They are fat. They are spoiled.

They have endured the rearing of my two spirited children. They have stood by while countless foster dogs made our home a temporary home. And they reluctantly accepted a Great Dane joining our family 2+ years ago.

My kitties have been through a lot.

Needless to say, when my son came running into my room hysterical one Friday night carrying a puff of fur, I wasn't phased. Until he handed me the puff.

We quickly raced to find poor Sasha hiding under his bed. We swooped her up and raced out to the car.

After all of these years, we were making our 1st trip to the emergency vet.

As we were driving - my son, with the cat in his lap and my hysterical daughter in the back seat - the story began to unfold.

He had been holed up in his fortress (his bunk bed with blankets surrounding all 4 sides) playing XBox, and decided to get up for a drink. He foot came down on the tip of Sasha's tail at the exact moment she leaped up into his bed. There was a pop, a yowl, and a puff of fur beneath is foot with no kitty in sight.

Poor Sasha's tail had been degloved.

According to the vet, this happens frequently to kitties. Often times, they get their tails caught under rocking chairs or in a door.

My poor, tolerant kitty had to have an inch of her tail amputated that night.

The healing process has been quite an endeavor, as each time she has had a bandage removed, she has chewed her wound open again. So we've added a cone.

She is less than thrilled, but is adapting well to her...attachment. She walks in to walls less and less each day. Her tail is on the mend, and we're hoping that once she is finally cone-free, she'll leave her darn tail alone. If I ever have to shove an antibiotic down a cat's throat again in my life, it will be too soon.