My Itchy Fingers

Surviving An Ordeal

On one not so fine day towards the end of April, while playing with Dusty, the Fat Lady that watches over the cars at the multi-storey car park at my place, I suddenly noticed a nasty wound on her left hind leg…It would not be visible if she were to sit on the ground with her limbs tucked in, but she happened to flip over to her right side and started grooming herself. That was when I saw it….

What a horrible wound!!! It looked kinda deep… :O It was wet cos she was
licking at it…oouch….

I didn’t remember seeing this the last time I saw her a couple of days back. Couldn’t find her for a day or two and now she got this wound. What could have caused this? Could it be a dog bite or a result of a cat fight? Wasn’t sure what was that whiter stuff on the rim of the wound…Looked like some hardened bit or was it part of the bone? There was a housefly hovering around her wound and clearly Dusty was quite freaked out and tried to swipe it away. Was the fly trying to lay its egg on the open wound? It would not be good if she got an infection from the wound…Worried, I called Tisu Boy and Itchyfingers were on our way to our second round of “Operation Save Dusty”….

As usual, we had a hard time trying to coax her into the cage…

Dusty at the vet…The cubby girl now weighed 6.1kg.. :p

The vet suspected it could be a result of another cat grabbing and biting her from behind as a dog’s bite would be much more devastating and they normally would go for the neck…Wow! That’s scary! If it’s a cat’s bite, we suspect it was from another tom cat around the car park as Tisu Boy once witnessed him biting Dusty on the neck. What a naughty boy!

Dusty’s beautiful fur had to be shaved before the vet could clean up her wound.
Luckily she said it was superficial and the white bit was just dead skin. Probably
she had this wound for a few days, and might have suffered a fever from the 
infection already

Putting Dusty back at the car park would not be a good idea as her open wound might still get infected. We couldn’t bring her home as my mother is not a great fan of cats and we are totally inexperienced with the caring of cats. In the end, we decided to let her stay at the vet for the next three days…The total medical and hospitalisation fee would cos Itchyfingers a small bomb but it was necessary to let her have a clean place to recover…

The next day Itchyfingers went to visit the sweet girl…The moment we stepped in and called her name, she gave us a soft meow!

Dusty in jail…She must be thinking we were there to bring her back…

But must felt disappointed…and depressed…Looked grouchy here…

I went back the following day and when we opened the cage to pet her, the
sweet girl just stayed there and didn’t attempt to run out…The vet and nurses
also said that Dusty is a very sweet kitty! Her wound seemed better, but the
opening was still very big and scary…

The day came when we had to bring her back. Looking at her wound, we decided that we need to foster her a few more days before putting her back. In the end, we brought her back to my old apartment that is meant to be rented out.

Lotion for cleaning the wound, cream for apply and power to dry up the wound

When we opened the cage, Dusty looked nervous with her new environment….

She was very wary and ran out with her body crouching very low, trying to 
make an escape. But the room door was closed so she tried to look for a 
safe place to hide…Look so comical with her big sagging tummy dragging
on the floor… :p

Then she ran into the toilet and continued to give us the suspicious look

And then she tried to hide at one corner! So poor thing! We can still see you! :p

Then she realised the back of the toilet bowl was an even safer place to hide!
As if knowing that we were not good at carrying kitty, Dusty must choose
this super tight corner to hide! No way we could get her there… :O

Seeing that she was so traumatised with the new place, Tisu Boy decided to stay with her. It was the first time Tisu Boy stayed out because of another girl! :O

It was reported that Dusty spent her whole night crouching under the toilet bowl, skipped her dinner and only came out for wee wee once… :p

The wound on the next day. It was the sixth day since she went to the vet

She came out for brekky, but soon ran into the cage again…

Had to pacify her…

But after spending the night together, Dusty seemed to be less worried…She was slowly back to her old self…

Seeking refuge near Tisu Boy…He practised picking her up…Boy it was
tough! Especially when it was a chubby kitty!

On the third day, I spent most of the time with her. She was still much quieter but obviously feeling more at ease than her first night. The previous days she heard us coming in, with the sound of the key and gate opening, she would run into her cage. But now she would walk around the rooms instead of hiding at one corner or in the cage, sometimes following us around…

Curiosity kills the cat. The sweet girl came out of her cage to check it out
when I was watching tv… :p

But soon she found nothing interesting and started to doze off…

Then completely let off her guard and zzzzz…..This would not be possible
if she didn’t feel safe…

Dusty had also been more vocal that night, meowing quite loudly. I even saw her jumping up the table! When she had a visitor earlier that day, she rushed to the door hearing it was opened. When Tisu Boy came in later, she also rushed to the door, although she didn’t try to push her way out. The sweet girl is too gentle to do such a thing…But we sensed that she was still not fully comfortable staying indoor…so did she want to go back to her car park? Will she think that we were abandoning her if we bring her back? Will she be sad? I wish she could tell us…Frankly speaking, it was a very tough decision to make. We love her and after spending so much time and effort trying to keep her safe from infection and more bites, we were unwillingly to send her back to the dirty car park again. But realistically we know we couldn’t take her back home…my mum would be giving me hell with her constant nagging and I also had to think about my three four-legged shelled babies. If bringing Dusty home means we need to restrict her movement in the house most of the time especially when we are out, that would not be fair to her either. I thought of finding her a forever home but none of my friends have extra space in their house and heart to take in another kitty…Her wound was much better now, still red but not oozing with liquid. It was really a very difficult decision to make…. 😦

In the end, we decided to bring her back to her most familiar place….It was a painful move…

The moment the cage was opened, Dusty dashed out and started to look around,
smelling the grass, looking at the sky…She looked excited to be back…We
just hoped we made the right decision for her…Here, Dusty parked herself
in front of our car after exploring around and confirmed it was her familiar
car park…

Dusty’s wound on day 12 on 7th May. Her undercoat were growing well…
We also bumped into the Malay feeder aunty and told her about Dusty’s 
hospitalisation. She must be worried sick when she found Dusty missing

12 May. On the road to recovery…

One day later, we found Dusty missing! Couldn’t find her for the next few days…Her kitty biscuit and water bowl were gone as well…We couldn’t find the feeder lady even though we tried to look for her around the same time she usually feeds Dusty. After more than two weeks, we had to try to convince ourselves that Dusty had been adopted by someone…

Dusty, last seen on 13 May…

It was more than one month later that I accidentally bumped into Dusty again, at exactly the same place! The lost and found feeling was really great!

The following night after I found Dusty again, I bumped into the feeder lady again. I was shocked when she told me all the while she has been feeding Dusty, and she is always there!!!! My goodness! Were we so blind to have missed her again and again?!? I do think that Dusty did go into hiding for a period of time for some reasons, cos otherwise there is no way we would have missed her for such a long time! The feeder lady said there is another new cat around the block…So could it be this new cat was bullying Dusty that she had to go into hiding? It remains a mystery…But I am glad that Dusty is safe and healthy now, with so many people around to feed and love her….She may not be staying with us now, but in Itchyfingers’ hearts she is already part of the family….

Also see related posts:
> Lost and Found
> Lie Like a Rug
> My Fat Lady