Emergency Room

I had an emergency room trip this weekend. No it was not for Jeff, who tends to be a little accident prone. And it was certainly not for me, who has yet to visit the ER for myself (knock on wood). No this was for the third member of our family. The cat. 

I was sitting outside reading on Saturday when a couple neighbors stopped by to talk. We sat out on the porch while the cat wondered around the property. Mostly she stayed on the porch though. We were talking when I saw the cat get down into a crouch. I assumed she was hunting my hummingbirds, who have been making very, very regular appearances at my feeder. When I looked over to see what she was looking at I found not a hummingbird but a two inch wasp. And that's when the cat sprung. She batted at the wasp...and the wasp struck back. 

I saw her paw try to grab it. And then she pulled away quickly. She rushed to the front door and began to lick her paw. She wouldn't put the paw down. I went over and picked her up to look at her foot and she had a dark black mark in the middle of her pad. The stinger looked pretty embeded. 

So Jeff called the emergency animal clinic and we bundled her into a duffle bag (our cat carrier is loaned to a friend) and drove to the kitty ER. They got us in really quickly. We saw the nurse and then the doctor came in. He looked at her paw carefully. The conversation went a little like this.

"Well I'm not seeing a stinger."

"It's in her lower pad." 

"Oh okay." We flipped the cat on her back. 

"Right there." 

"That's pigment." 

"That's what?" 

"Just a bit of pigment. Like a freckle." 

"I've never seen in before." 

"See look how it doesn't move or rub off. I'm not even causing her any pain when I push a little. It's just pigment." 

"So no stinger." 

"Not that I see." 

So I had to go out to the receptionist and explain that I brought my cat in for a freckle. To the emergency room!! There is just no way to do that and not feel like an idiot. The vet was nice and explained that you should always come in for a sting but I still felt like a moron. We stopped for ice cream on the way home (the cat's favorite) but I still haven't lived it down that we took her in because she has a little pigment on her paw. But at least she's okay. (By the way, as I write this she's sitting on the table enjoying being petted. She's a bit spoiled.)