or, more trials and tribulations of yet another fallen angel

in preparation of the great Snowpocalypse of 2009 this past Saturday, i slept hard and late. sure i had a ton of office work to do, but i also had to try and get my house in basic working order (ie, clean cat boxes, wood easily accessible for any lack of heat, snowblower actually working).

in the midst of me running in and out of the house, mom and i were having a fine came of voice mail phone tag which boiled down to thus:

Sophie, one of the feral cats from the Volunteer Services for Animals that we relocated to our barn a few years ago had an abscess on her neck. mom managed to catch her (Sophie has become quite the sweetie, and would often consent to being pet by mom). mom was headed to the vet with her.

but, upon arriving at he vet, Sophie freaked out and bit mom quite soundly. mom was rushed in back where the techs applied betadine for a good 15 minutes, and she was sent of to the Urgent Care to get antibiotics. Sophie would be sedated and examined. and animal control would have to be call since it was more than 2 years since the last vaccination for rabies (i.e., when she had been health screened by VSA and placed to us -- all involved know that these cats are not likely to be caught again and taken in for routine physicals). i'm now on call to possibly pick up Sophie in case mom is delayed.

until of course mom calls and we actually get to talk, and she's headed to Target, do i need anything. i can tell immediately that she is crying and ask what's wrong. she just heard from the vet -- Sophie tested positive for feline leukemia. she would have to be put down. poor mom and really bonded with this sweetheart, and yes, she had tested negative when we got her, but given the population of strays (and not-so-strays who are not properly looked after) that rotate through our area, Sophie had ended up infected. so now we have the question of do we have to keep her alive for the rabies quarantine (two weeks) or can we be kind and put her down and have a post mortem performed.

luckily, we were able to go with the later.

not so luckily, the morning of the Snowpocalypse (sunday) mom called to see if i needed to be plowed out. i assured her i was fine -- did they need me to come down and shovel? no, though mom wasn't able to do much since her hand was now hugely swollen. i asked if the driveway was clear and when was she leaving for the ER. "i'll call the doctor tomorrow." cue my yelling and protesting.

at least dad has more sense than her and packed her up later that afternoon as she tried to put up a brave front as her hand was throbbing and she could not move her fingers (!!!). this is what happens when one is raised by a hypochondriac (my grandmonster, her mother).

so she has been in the hospital on high dose antibiotics since sunday afternoon. she is hoping she can come home today -- she was told she would be released when she could make a fist, and she is pretty much there as of this morning. of course, they would love to be able to start treating her for rabies if needed, but there is a problem. no test results for Sophie yet, though the state does have her body. so now we are trying to get in touch with former vet of ours from eons ago who is now state vet for the SPCA and see if he can move along the 2-3 week process (dude! what's up with that?) and possibly get all implications of trying to be a good person to animals handled in one fell swoop.

in the meantime, mom has sworn off any outdoor cats as she cannot bear to have to put one down before their time again. even Rory (ancient man who showed up on my doorstep last year and now living with them) is no longer allowed to take a turn around the garden under supervision as has been his recent pleasure. he shall have to content himself to the four bedrooms, two couches and one cardboard box of his very own in the indoor confinement.

whew. as i said yesterday, it's winter solstice, mom's in the hospital. welcome to our new tradition we started with last year's pneumonia fun at this time....