For anyone who has lived with a house panther, there is no question that Toothless the night fury in How to Train Your Dragon is more feline than anything else. His features, his mannerisms, his grace, his capriciousness--these are all obvious cat traits. Of these, I think it is the capriciousness that I appreciate the most. That's one of my favorite cat behaviors, to act docile and flirtatious in one second, and to attack in the next, only to go back to innocence an instant later. You can't take it as an insult. They're just reminding you that it's an ultimate killing machine that you are attempting to cuddle. They all do it. That's what makes them fun.
My own night fury, my little murder floof Athena, has been feeling awful. I wrote the night after I took her to the vet that her bad breath signaled a serious problem with one of her teeth. Today was her day to go under anaesthesia to have the abscessed tooth removed, and have the rest of her mouth investigated. I've been very nervous about this, because it's one of my babies going in for surgery who can't be reassured with a logical explanation of the procedure. I didn't want her to be so frightened that she had a poor outcome (or a tragic one). When we waited to talk to the vet on drop-off, I opened the top of her carrier, and leaned over it, resting my elbows on the exam table where she sat. She never tried to jump out of the carrier. She just scooted to the side closest to me and hid in the curtain provided by my long hair. She needed a lot of extra comfort. I had an exceptionally hard time walking away from her, even knowing that the vet is magical with cats, and Athena absolutely loved her the first time they met.
As they were waking Athena up, I got a phone call from the vet to let me know how it all went. The abscessed tooth was awful. The roots were mostly deteriorated, and what was left had to be drilled out. Her incisors, the tiny front teeth, were all so loose, that a whole row of them essentially fell out, and most of the others had to come out as well. Her fangs and the other molars are still intact, so she will eventually be able to eat dry kibbles again, but for at least two weeks, she will be on 100% canned pate.
She got a three-day injection of antibiotics, and a shot of painkiller that should last equally as long. She was a little wobbly when she came home, and she had goo on her eyes that they put on them so they don't dry out (last I heard cats keep their eyes open under anaesthesia, so they need to put goo on them--I assume what I heard was true, but I'm willing to hear other explanations that might contradict that). We were supposed to be next door all night tonight, but I requested to switch to here, so that I could stay close to her all night, and make sure she recovered from the ordeal well. She seemed curious about our guests, walking across the table several times to make sure she was the center of attention. She startled a little easier than usual, but she recovered all right. She absolutely purred and cuddled more. It could be that extended-release painkiller talking, or it could be the fact that her mouth is no longer irritating her. I am looking forward to a more tame, more relaxed little house panther. She's more toothless than she was before, but I bet her attitude changes from night fury to night snuggler.
No comments:
Post a Comment