Freya Date – Day 1 AA (After Amputation)

Well, I’m calling it Day One. Day One After Amputation.

Today, 21 December 2012, I picked Freya up at the vet’s in the afternoon. After a hefty bill was paid (come on down pet insurance people!! Show me the money!! Wait – mixed metaphors there – who cares!) and pain killer prepared and antibiotics obtained (liquid form please) I see her.

She’s in a cage. She has a Cone of Shame. She is so pleased to see me!! I am so pleased to see her too! She’s moving around. Woops, bit unsteady there. Oh no, there it is. Not so bad really. Feel relieved. FYI, my vet used internal sutures, no staples, immeasurably less confronting.

I pick her up – it’s so quick there’s no time to wonder about right way and wrong way, she’s just in my arms. Then carry her to the carrier, she practically lunges at the thing. I think I actually got a face full of absent leg as she clambours in.

Back home and out she gets, weaving and listing,  into the luxuriously appointed recuperation room (the front room I use as a sort of library). I spent the last two nights clearing out obstacles and moving in a mattress for me and boxes for her, and decorating it appropriately.

It’s also Xmas and instead of heading home to Taree to my Mum’s, I’ll be here with the cat (don’t worry, I will be temporarily adopted for Xmas dinner). So I made the house a bit more festive and the recuperation room positively glows with candles (battery operated tea lights), crystals, flowers, colourful throws and beautiful pictures. It’s to be my home too for a few days (possibly longer as my bedroom is upstairs and that is where she normally sleeps, and I’m not sure how long until stairs are OK) and it needs to be beautiful and uplifting. The stuff I’ve read said make it dark and quiet and calm, keep her confined and all that, but I also chose to make it beautiful and inspiring.

She wanders slowly, listing to one side, staggering almost. Her front paws are a bit awkward as she lies down then gets up again. But lying down seems to cause no concern. Of dear, the Cone of Shame came off. Watch and observe if she licks the wound …. back goes the cone of shame (not agreeable to Freya at all).

She sees me prepare some food, lots of miaowing in agreement. Woofs it down, liquid pain killer and all – cone a challenge. The vet said she hadn’t eaten while she was with them, so really pleased to see that. She hasn’t gone to the kitty litter tray yet, which may pose a challenge.

Realise I need to give her some anitbiotics. Prepare the syringe and rapidly find out the ‘arrangement’ she and I had come to after her first surgery is null and void as the cone prevents me grabbing her by the scruff on the neck and prising  open her mouth. Dang. Darn. Drat. Review her known eating habits (all food fair game) and think if I hide it in some smelly tuna/broth then she might take it that way. Successs!!!

Right now? I’m creating posts on my laptop while lying stomach down on the mattress and Freya has taken up one of her favourite positions, curled up between my legs. Euphoria. Bliss. Contentment. Hope.

Bring on Day Two.