Archive for January, 2007

Good to see you up and about


Mandrake, our marmalade tabby, got up today and walked around in the living room for the first time since last Wednesday. He’s still not putting any pressure on his affected leg, or drinking water, but his temperature has dropped and he’s eating a little more. He needs to.

It seems likely that his rough play with feisty kitten Drusilla led to a bite on his knee, which got infected and he’s clearly had some extreme pain to deal with. We can’t go anywhere until he starts drinking, as we have to give him 20mg of water every three hours—that’s two syringes, which thankfully he takes without any complaint.

The delight today, besides seeing some improvement, was in watching the reaction of the other four cats. While he’s been in his bed all the time, they’ve occasionally gone over to see him, give him a lick, and then come over to us to seemingly ‘ask’–non-verbally, obviously enough—if he’s going to be okay. Or it has seemed that way to us. This morning, when he staggered across the living room floor like a misaligned supermarket trolley, all his friends came rushing up to him, ecstatic to see him up and about. He was sniffed, licked and head-bumped (which we have long believed to be the feline equivalent of a kiss, or greeting).

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Sunday, January 28th, 2007