We spotted a nasty gash on Paris's leg on Monday evening. On Tuesday I took him to the vet, who kept him in to be operated on. I got him back Tuesday evening, nicely recovered from the anaesthetic, with a load of stitches in the leg, a course of antibiotics and instructions to bring him back Friday for a vet nurse assessment and the following Friday to have the stitches removed. We have to keep him indoors until the stitches are out, and pill him twice a day.

Keeping Paris indoors means (mostly) keeping Indy indoors so we have two rather unhappy cats. The catflap is blocked up by means of a spare IVAR shelf and a lot of heavy things in front of it. Paris has always been less keen on running outside than Indy, so we've been letting Indy in and out the front door several times a day, making sure Paris is well out of the way and unlikely to escape. Coming in from outside involves carefully opening the door a crack and hissing if Paris looks likely to run out between one's legs. We're also less able to set the door wide to let visitors in, and have to frantically explain through a narrow gap before hustling them inside!


Plea for help:
We are all (me, Tony, Charles, Jonny) supposed to be going away Friday afternoon for a long-weekend family gathering for my brother Matt's birthday, and an early celebration of Charles's birthday. We can't take Paris with us[1] and Charles can't go without me[2] so our options are:

1. Leave Tony behind, in which case he could really do with someone to help him pill Paris twice a day! It usually takes at least 3 hands to do properly.

2. Find a kind person or persons willing to catsit and pill Paris twice a day, and not let him escape, and feed him, and let Indy in and out, and get on with our remaining lodger, thus allowing Tony to come with us.

1 is the minimal solution that will work and still allow me and Charles to join the family celebration.



[1] My mother's house is far less secure than ours, and my stepfather has cat allergies, even if I wanted to lug cat, litter tray, food, et al on the train.

[2] Well, technically he could but we'd all be unhappy.

Go into living room. Find Indy playing with live mouse. Scream in surprise. Indy runs away. Mouse runs away. Tony catches mouse, throws outside. 5 minutes later, go back into living room. Find Paris playing with dead mouse. Paris runs away. Scream, swear, stamp. Tony disposes of dead mouse.

Cats get shut in utility room* and roundly sworn at.

* with catflap, food, drink and beds - we aren't talking inhumane punishment, just damage limitation

Paris has mastered the art of moving silently and vanishing without trace while locked in a room. First of all I needed to look at his scabs to see if they'd got any better or if I needed to make a vet appointment. He took exception to me going anywhere near him, so there was a lot of faffing about, moving chairs, reaching under shelves, getting hissed at etc etc, until I finally caught him. And yes, the scabs were worse again.

Then I rang the vet, expecting to be given an appointment a few days later, as before, but instead got one for 10am. I had a doctor's appointment at 9:50 so I delegated vet-detail to Tony. As I was going to the doctor before work, I had some spare time so decided to be nice and do the actual caging of the cat for transport. Foolishly I had let him escape from the living room while ringing the vet (but not the house), so first of all I had to chase him back in there, which involved much running up and down the stairs until I mastered the timing to make him go in there rather than through my legs again. Then I assembled the cage, and slipped warily back into the living room.

Could not find cat. Looked under everything, behind everything: no cat. Checked inside study: no cat. Hauled Tony in to join search: almost immediately found cat lurking motionless behind curtain on study windowledge. Managed to grab him effectively, despite more bad language and resistance, and between the two of us we got him into the carrier and locked him in.

Thankfully the vet said Paris will probably heal on his own now, and we should leave it for at least 3 weeks, and also gave an injection which is supposed to make the area less itchy, so hopefully he'll stop scratching it up again. I do wonder how long it will take before Paris stops running away from me at every opportunity.

fanf and I are getting two cats shortly after we get back from our honeymoon. This is probably excessively couply or something (although possibly not, compared to being married). We're getting Kat's cats as mentioned here. While Tony is used to having pets, I've never lived with any animal until davethedog started visiting regularly. But that has gone well, and I usually get on with other people's cats, and I am prepared for the probable dealing with dead things. I am going to keep my room off limits to them and try to keep them downstairs at night.

I've talked it over with Keith who is amenable, and antinomy who had lots of good advice, and have thought it over a lot with Tony before definitely deciding and I'm now getting quite excited about it. Keith and I have been talking about where to put their things and where to feed them and so on. I want to find a "how to look after your cat" book (yes, I know it's probably reasonably easy but I've never done it and I like having a manual). Any recommendations gratefully received.

Otherwise I'm a bit zogged today after a dash into London to meet damerell in the Oakdale for some drinks last night. emperor and I took the wussy non-cycling option and caught the train back that arrives shortly before midnight. I crashed a bit on the train, but woke up sufficiently cycling home that I couldn't settle to sleep and was still up when fanf got back rather later on the next train. But at least I was failing to sleep at home rather than kept awake elsewhere.