s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

Just talked to the vet. She examined the wound after the swelling went down. The joint where the paw meets the leg is pretty much blown, all the ligaments are torn away.

The options came down to:
–Transferring him to Massey (big vet school/hospital 2 hours north of here) to attempt to reconstruct the joint and set the bone, which might or might not save the leg, and might result in arthritis down the track in the affected joint.
–Amputation at the scapula.
He is now having his leg taken off. He will be in the hospital for the next few days. Hopefully he can come home around Monday or so.

The good news is that cats can do well on 3 legs, and he is young and fit and will hopefully recover well.

The vet will try to retreive the metal fragents from the amputated leg, so we can get a better idea of what hit him. Then it is time to canvas the neighbors, and maybe call the SPCA.

So, we are in the middle of what might be a crime drama. We are waiting for the evidence tomorrow.

In brief, we came back in from checking the ‘paca Tuesday night to find Jake with a nasty laceration on his right front leg. He must have sustained the wound in a 30-minute period, and fairly close to the house (a few hundred meters). He was bleeding pretty freely, and didn’t want to put weight on the leg. We called the after-hours vet clinic, and based on the description of the wound they said he could wait for his normal vet in the morning.

In the morning the leg was badly swollen. I took him to the vet. Over the course of the day I had a number of phone conversations with our young but very helpful vet. An examination under anesthesia showed that one of the leg bones was broken. An x-ray showed that it was a nasty compound fracture, and that it was the bone-edge with probably ripped the skin. Ick. She also found a second puncture wound on the bottom of the leg. Theory at the moment- dog bite. After futher thinking and examination and the theory turned into “hit by car”.

Later that afternoon she consulted with a more senior vet who had arrived for his shift at the practice. Due to the nature of the break the prognosis was not good. Internal pinning of the bone would not work, so she was talking about either tricky-expensive external pins, or amputation.

We went in about 4 PM to have a consult and bring a drugged-up Jake home for the night. Theory update- the dog attack does not seem to make sense as Jake had no blood or fur on his razor-sharp claws (defensive wounds). The hit-by-car theory had a problem in that usually the claws are scuffed as they dig into the pavement at the moment of impact, but his were clean. But there were a number of radio-opaque objects in the x-ray, objects which might be bullet fragments.

The hopeful news is that a further analysis of the break means that a bandage-cast may work, it will just need frequent changing while the wound heals because he has both a break and a bad laceration which cannot be entombed in a cast. He goes back tomorrow, when he will put back under anesthesia and have the wound cleaned, and then wrap-set. I hope they can get some of the larger fragemts out, because if they are lead we know the cause.

If it is a bullet wound I will do a mailbox drop on the ~8 neighbors within 300 meters, the distance he could have come injured like that in that amount fo time. Hopefully they can provide some helpful info.

And needless to say, we all wish this had never happened. Jake is now living in the dog crate we got for Greyhound fostering, and is miserable. And we could really live without the vet bills right now. Sigh.

In a repeat of the last post- we are still getting lots of nasty winter weather. Tuesday and Wednesday were quite nice this week. Cool, but fine, still and sunny. Now the rain, hail, and howling southerly have come back. The alpaca are not very pleased about this whole situation, but they endure. At least they look happy when I bring them out some hay. Digesting hay produces lots of extra heat (due to the fermenation in the rumen), so it is a great food source on cold winter days. I prefer hot chocolate.

What brought up this whole comment about language was reading the weather report from the Met Service today. They have a sense of humor. Or at least of reality. In the past I have been amused at predictions of “stroppy” winds. Today Wellington has the weather prediction of “bleak and showery. strong cold southerlies.” Boy, they got that right!

In other news- at 7 AM this morning I met a horse transporter with Yvonne down at the front, and helped unload a bay mare and a grey gelding pony. Yvonne is planning to put some work into them, then sell them on. There was only supposed to be the pony coming, but apparently plans changed suddenly last night (somebody lost their grazing, and couldn’t afford to move/keep the horse). Never a dull moment!

Jake is doing much better. The limp is mostly gone. He has also decided he has become a house cat (the weather may play a role in that decision). He does not head back to the bedrooms much, he only eats from “his” bowl outside in the mud-room, and he goes to the toilet outside. The other cats are learning to deal with him, even Amaya and Azami. That is good.

So, now that we are on to weekdays, I am trying to work out my daily routine with the dog.

We have determined that he must have only been fed once a day before, for while he eats all his dinner, he only nibbles at breakfast (and what he does not eat goes away, as we are trying to follow the wolf-pack-feeding-hierarchy system).

Most of the day yesterday he was free to wander around the dining room, with the back-half of the house sealed off and full of cats. I left the living room slider open so the cats could come in and out. About lunchtime I came inside and found that Prince had discovered the joy of the couch.

Naughty Dog! We are supposed to train them to stay off the furniture, as we don’t know what the adopting home will want. So I would gently lift him off the couch while saying “Off!” And 20 minutes later, he would be back on the couch. But by the end of the day he had gotten the “off” command, which does bode well for his learning curve.

I had one close moment with the cats. Slow managed to slip into the dining room, and I had to tackle Prince as he made a lunge for him. Later that night we tried some crate training- where he was in a crate and we present cats. But that didn’t go so well, as the cats were so freaked it was kicking in his prey-drive.

We have had more success just leaving him in his crate, and letting the cats approach (or watch from a wary distance) on their own. Hopefully we can improve his cat safety level. We have another 27 days to go, so not rushing the process might help.

In other amusing animal news, last night Jake came to the living room slider and was standing up, pawing at the glass with a clear “hey! you seem to have left me outside!” So we let him in. After a bit of lap time, he curled up against the alpaca pillow. So we left him in for the night, which passed without incident. I am guessing by the time winter fully sets in, Jake will be an indoors cat every night. Sure, he loves the rough farm life. But cuddling up to a fluffy pillow afterwards, well, that is just his due, right?

Upon moving down here at the end of 2003, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at wargaming again. Wargames, whether they be bits of carboard on a hex map or little toy soldiers, have been a part of my life since I was but a wee little lad. Last year I started going to the Wellington Warlods, a local wargaming club, and was introdced to Full Thrust. This is a generic spaceship game where you fly your little model ships around the table and blow each other up. Fun! I was enoying the games a great deal, but I wanted more. I wanted strategic scope, and for that we would need a campaign. So I drew up a map and rules, and we had one. Twelve months later we have gone from 5 players to 10, we are on the 6th campaign. The maps have gotten bigger and better, and we have crafted a really nice set of strategic/campaign rules. On many weeks more people are playing Full Thrust than any of the other “traditional” miniatures games (Warhammer, Flames of War, DBM). Last weekend the Warlords had their AGM which I didn’t attend. Afterwards I got a call from Geoff who did. Apparently I was voted “Warlords of the Year” for my contributions to gaming at the club. That is a very nice bit of recognition (and a free yearly membership). All very cool, but you know, I was doing all this for my own enjoyment!

In other good news…

Yesterday the shed passed its final inspection! Woot! So today I can build (or start building) the hayloft, and next week I will drive over to the Wairarapa and get as much hay as my ute will carry. Very cool!

The lump on Slow’s back is cancer, as we suspected, but it is a basal cell cancer that is of little danger. Considering how little it has grown in the 12 months we have been monitoring it, that is no surprise. Slow is starting to show his age (13), but he is still doing well, and enjoying his farm life (which often involves just spending the day outside, lying in the sun and watching the birds).

Some time in the last few days a switch clicked in the little kitty head of Jake, the Burmese that has been living on our farm since August. Jake has been taken home twice by his owner Carol, but to quote the song “oh the cat came back…” not the next day, but in about 3 to 5 days. I guess it takes him some time to cover the 5 km from Rainui Heights.

Jake was slowly getting friendlier and friendlier over the last 5 months (at first he wouldn’t let me within 10 metres of him), and then over the weekend he decided we were his people, and our house was his. He now follows us around the farm, meowing for attention. If you hold still he will flop down at your feet and demand a good pet. If we leave door open he wanders in and flobs on the floor. He comes to the back door to demand food (Carol left a bowl and some kibble for him).

All this means we too may have crossed a threshold. Five cats. That makes us Crazy Cat People (TM). Doom! We can hope that if he converts into a house-cat here, it will increase the chances he will stay with Carol when she next takes him home (when she gets back from her Christmas holiday). But if he comes back again, I think we may have a new cat. Right now the boys (Slow Top and Rasputin) pretty much ignore him, while the girls (Azami and Amaya) are freaked out/terrified of him. Interesting.

No anime last night: Beth and Geoff have new kittens ! Named Kaylee and Jayne, of course, although they are both girls. They’re both the standard tabby moggies like Amaya — luckily Jayne is a little paler, so you can tell them apart. They pile so cutely (imagine me with a goofy cute-sated “awwwww” expression here).

So there’s been this cat hanging around our place for a few months now:

We see him every now and then, usually either sleeping in the hay trailer, or sitting in the Glen paddock with his head stuck down a rabbit hole. Stephen’s taken to calling him “Ghost”, and although none of our near neighbors laid claim to him, it was pretty clear that he wasn’t some random stray.

We pointed him out to Yvonne recently, and later on, she mentioned that she saw a flyer up in the window of the Tawa pet store with a picture of a sort of Burmese-looking cat that might be this one. Unfortunately, the pet store closed down, and the flyer was taken down.

Fast forward to last week, and the meeting in the Webbs’ barn to talk to the ranger about the possibility of getting horse riding (and llama trekking) access to the park at the top of the valley (which recently changed hands). One of the other horsey people in the valley (who’d heard about our mystery cat from Yvonne) indicated that the cat in the flyer — named “Jake” — belonged to a friend of hers & was in the habit of roaming since he and his owner had moved. We asked her to pass on our details, so we could find out if Jake and Ghost were one and the same.

As it happens, they are. He’d gone missing from his Porirua home about four months ago (about the time we started seeing him at our place), and had wandered up over the ridge to our place, about 5km away. Although we couldn’t turn him up when she dropped by to identify him from the photos we took (including the one above) his owner was *very* happy to know where he’d got to.

Fast forward again to today. Yvonne has just now (as I was in the middle of writing this post) caught Jake in the tack shed. We’ve stuffed him into Azami’s travelling crate and left a message for Carol when she gets home from work. Looks like Jake’s going home ! The rabbits won’t miss him, but we will (unless he turns up again, of course !).

[Posted by Tamara, who forgot to check who she was logged in as...]

We’ve had several requests for more photos, so here ya go !

In the news department: Still no new crias. Amaya has been speyed, and has to wear one of those big dorky cone collars to keep her from licking her stitches. Azami caught a rabbit today ! If you look close in that last picture, the cria had a bit of grass (and clover, actually) in his mouth. He’s not due to be weaned for, oh, another six months, mind you, but everyone *else* was grazing, so he wandered around with them, chewing the same blade of grass over and over.

I’m not sure where this is in my List of Phrases One Really Ought Not to Hear in Real Life (i.e., Outside of a TV Sitcom), but it must surely be in the top five:

“I’ve super-glued myself to the cat.”

Don’t ask. Just… don’t ask.