This is our oldest furry baby, Tabby. She is 8 years old and the most gentle and timid cat I know. Although she's an indoor cat, she has taken a fancy to the outside world lately. She loves to hang out in the backyard with the doxies. Perhaps I indulged in her fancy too much because... One night last week, I woke up at 3am to let one of the doxie outside, and Tabby jumped out the door before I could stopped her. After 5 minutes of playing tease-n-chase with her... her teasing and I'm chasing, I decided that she's not ready to go back inside and that John could let her back in when he's up in an hour. I was not worried that she would leave the yard because she doesn't.
Well, the doxie and I went back to bed.... only to be awaken after 40 minutes by an awful howling noise. It only took me a couple seconds to realize that it was Tabby's. I was out of bed in a heartbeat and ran downstairs. John said that he's never seen me bolted out of bed and moved so quickly... he he... we can laugh about it now...
Anyway, Tabby was still crying when I got to the door. I opened the door; she flew in from the side of the house. Clearly, she was shaken by something because she ran upstairs and hid in my closet. John went outside, both front and back yards, to see what's out there but didn't see anything... except for the neighbors' dogs were barking... probably from Tabby's cry.
Things calmed down, and Tabby finally came out of the closet for me to take a closer look at her. Upon close inspection, I found a patch of hair missing and scratches on her back. So an appointment with the vet was in order. Her injury seemed superficial with a little bit of swelling and pus forming due to the sores. We walked away with medication for the infection and hopeful that she will not need surgery 'cause we caught it early. After a couple days with medication, Tabby is back to herself or so we thought...
Here we are a week later and a revisit to the vet. Tabby's swollenness didn't get bigger but it didn't go away neither and now needed surgery to drain the build up fluid.
As it turn out, her injury is a lot deeper than we thought including the doctor. Whatever that tried to get her had claws. We concluded that it must have been an owl because of the sizes of the scratch marks on her, we heard owl screeches before, and John had seen the actual owl.
Here she is after the surgery... shaved back and drain tubes. Those tubes and stitches will come out on Saturday or Monday.
Despite her discomfort, Tabby is a true trooper; she is still sweet and gentle as ever.
I think her outside escapades will end here though. But I'm concern that if an owl tried to pick up an 11+ lbs. cat, will it able to pick up the little doxies? :-[
12 comments:
Poor Tabby. I'm glad to hear she's on the mend though, and none the worse - though probably a little wiser - for her adventures.
Oh, Rhonda, I'm so sorry to hear about Tabby being injured. I hope she heals quickly and is back to her normal self very soon. Please give her a good chin scratching from me.
Oh, poor baby. I am sorry she got hurt. She is so pretty. Hope she gets better fast.
Poor Tabby she did have a nasty scare....she has had a rough trot, I do hope she recovers soon.
An owl! Wow - who would have guessed? I seee vultures around here in the sky, over the town, and often wondered what they are looking for -- maybe CATS also?
Poor Baby! I'm sure she was traumatized. Hopefully the doxies will be on the lookout for that old owl. I'm sure Tabby just didn't know what to do since she's not an outside cat. Hope this puts an end to her outdoor fun. Take care! Jennifer
Poor Tabby! I had the same concern about Toast (DD's mini doxie) and hawks! It must have been some big owl!
Holly
So glad Tabby is OK but I know I'd be worried about the big bad owl taking off with Chesty. Of course we don't have a fenced place for him to be out alone so he'd be OK anyway.
Rhonda---that was a close call with your Tabby. We live on 5 acres of very wood country property that is situated within acres of more firs and oaks on a hillside. We have concerns about wildlife getting at our little. maltese poodle, Bootsy. We go out with her, especially in the evenings. Although we saw an owl o get one of the birds at our feeder in the daylight hours a few weeks ago. He just swooped down and picked the bird right off the rung on the feeder. You rarely see owls hunt in bright sunlight.
Oh my! I had a friend who had to scare off a hawk that tried to pick up her tiny chihuahua in the yard. Thank goodness she was there and able to make the hawk drop it. I have complete sympathy for poor Tabby. Give her lots of love from Alabama.
Best wishes to Tabby for speedy healing. What a scare that was, I'd be cautious about letting Yoshi and Suki outside after dark. We have hawks and owls here and we never let Hannes outside at night without him being leashed, can't be too careful.
Glad your kitty is doing better. Wildlife is wonderful in someways, but dangerous in others. I am almost positive that there are coyotes living behing our yard, and I have noticed that I don't see stray cats anymore. Also, I don't see my quails, and the neighbors don't see bunnies anymore.
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