Thursday, January 19, 2017

Perdita has come home to us again. She has survived major surgery in remarkably good form, although she is not speaking to me. She is eating, and moving fairly comfortably, and the wound looks remarkably small and neat and healthy.

She is wearing one of those awful plastic collars. I don’t remember them from long-ago experience of dear cats being spayed. Helen (who has been carrying the can on this one) is adamant that she must keep it on until she sees her consultant again next Thursday. I wouldn’t be surprised if she succeeds in getting it off before then. And I am a bit worried, alternatively, that she may strangle herself in the attempt.



The house was astonishingly empty all day without her. Even a disagreeable cat in a plastic collar, which is what we have this evening, is better than nothing.

But it wasn’t a wasted day on other fronts. A letter from the Government Gateway has supplied my husband’s new Gateway User ID. It was far too stressful a day even to think of filing the income tax, but Helen is going to come tomorrow to deal with the early-morning door-answering so that I can attempt it. If I can log on, it won’t take more than half an hour. If I can log on.

And my Knitzi arrived! This time, again, it came when I was out – I only very rarely leave my husband on his own, but I did so for half an hour one morning last week and the postman, who must have been crouched behind a hedge and have seen my departure, sprang forward with the package. This time, thank goodness, he left a card saying that he had failed to deliver it. I arranged re-delivery for today. It came!


Now I really must start a pair of socks. 

15 comments:

  1. I'm confident that Perdita will forget her objections by the time the collar comes off and will be much happier in the long run. It is important to keep the collar on her until then, you really wouldn't want to deal with her pulling out stitches, it's bad enough when we have to do it to our knitting!

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  2. She does look quite cross!

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  3. Just remember that you will get the credit for taking the collar off and it does at least divert her annoyance.
    Best of luck for the l*g *on procedure. I have got lots of bits crossed for you.

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  4. Cats in these collars can't wash as much of themselves as usual so you will have to stand by with a warm damp facecloth after eating, otherwise her face will get sticky and itchy. You might have to keep an eye on her bottom too (different facecloth) otherwise cats have an interesting method of cleaning their bottoms on the carpet.....

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  5. Cats are really fast at chewing out stitches!! She'll be all healed by next week & all will be well. Just consider her a fractious teen stomping about the house because you said NO.

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  6. I have had probably twelve to fifteen cats spayed over the years and probably as many dogs and have never ever used those horrible collars.
    We have never had a problem with any critter either. Ever.

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  7. I have had probably twelve to fifteen cats spayed over the years and probably as many dogs and have never ever used those horrible collars.
    We have never had a problem with any critter either. Ever.

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  8. Anonymous12:03 AM

    Glad Perdita's surgery is over and she came through.

    Leave the Cone of Shame on! I let my dog sleep with it off, and she snuck onto the sofa, pulled out all the stitches (it was her foot), and bled all over. Then I had to take her back to the vet. I got a lecture about leaving the collar on, and an extra bill, and the dog got staples and 10 more days in the collar.

    Beverly in NJ

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  9. That is not a happy cat.

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  10. What a lovely little cat!

    Over the years, I've had quite a few cats spayed with no problem. But the cat I have now, Molly, chewed her stitches out and I had to take her back to the vet to get her sewed up again. After examining her, his comment was, "Well, with that tummy she'll never be a swimsuit model," which was more tactful than saying to me, "What's your problem you inattentive twit that you let this happen?"

    So it's rare, but there are cats who do remove their stitches.

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  11. When my boy cat had to have an op to remove the 18" nylon ribbon he'd eaten (and which was going to saw his intestines into shreds) he got the cone of shame off and pulled out three of his twelve stitches in a matter of minutes. I flung some steri strips over the now gaping wound and managed to get to the vet before they closed. That was another £100 on the bill and an extra three days in the collar for Max. It's just not worth it so resist the pleading grumpy face.

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  12. Anonymous11:58 AM

    Congratulations, Jean. You did the right thing. Sorry about the collar. At least you have all these lovely followers whose experience is supporting you through this difficult process. When I started to cry after my doctor informed my that my breech baby would require a Caesarean section, he sternly warned me of the real risks of birth defects such as cerebral palsy from a natural birth. As a result I never spent another second feeling sorry for myself and was able to rejoice in giving birth to a healthy baby. Of course many natural births result in perfectly healthy breech babies, but doctors see the gamut and don't want you to be one of the unlucky ones. So these days we all have to endure the collar and other modern 'atrocities.' Chloe

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  13. Jean, when each of our cats was spayed I don't think they had stitches, I believe they used glue, so they didn't have to wear the cone. Much happier kitties without the cone and they didn't have to go back to the vet to have the stitches out! Poor Perdita, and poor you, I can't imagine the poor thing having to wear that thing for a whole week!!

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  14. Tell Perdita it could be worse. Last time Athena had surgery she ended up in a vet recovery suit with a butt flap we had to open any time she needed to poop or pee (that was the theory anyway, I figured out how to keep the flap open constantly as I was out of the house most of the day and mom couldn't deal with it).

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  15. It might be worth investing in one of these - both of you would probably be a lot more comfortable

    http://bit.ly/2kac7Jj

    It's just as effective, but a lot less noisy at night etc.

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