Aby-a-Day – 20 Januari 2020: Lorelai at the Vet (Medical Hipstamatic Monday)

Last week,Loreali went to the vet to have some sores on her ears and head checked out. This first photo is at the bus stop; you can see the general lack of winter we’ve had in the background.

Rory rode the bus like the pro she is, and I didn’t need to let her out during the ride.

We got to the vet early and were ushered into our exam room.

While we waited for the doctor, Rory investigated Dashiell’s carrier, which we used for the trip today.

Then the nurse came in and left the scale on the table. Of course, Rory had to investigate it, and it had some interesting smells.

Apparently, they were VERY interesting smells!

But at the end of the day, Rory’s skin issues were most likely related to her early, temporary, heat.

So her issue was hormonal, and not contagious. GREAT to know!

Of course, right at the end of the visit, Rory got a little naughty. What can you do?

Aby-a-Day – 11 April: Why does the sun go on shining?

Why does the sea rush to shore?
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?
‘Cause you don’t love me anymore

Why do the birds go on singing?
Why do the stars glow above?
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?
It ended when I lost your love

I wake up in the morning and I wonder
Why everything’s the same as it was
I can’t understand, no, I can’t understand
How life goes on the way it does

Why does my heart go on beating?
Why do these eyes of mine cry?
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?
It ended when you said goodbye

Jacoby died at 18:35 CEST today. May StarClan light his path. May he find good hunting, swift running, and shelter when he sleeps.

A vet at Anicura called me around 18:25 to tell me he was having trouble breathing and they wanted to know what to do, if they should resuscitate him or use heroic measures…and while I was on the phone with the doctor, he just…died. He was alive at the beginning of the call (which thank StarClan I didn’t miss), and gone at the end of it. Apparently, 20 minutes prior to her calling me, he was doing all right, but then he just crashed. There was no possible way I had time to get there before he was gone.

A different vet had called me earlier in the afternoon to tell me how he was doing. He was still having a lot of trouble breathing outside of the oxygen cage. He was still on the feeding tube. He was too weak for another round of chemo. She told me that the total was up to around 43,000kr in charges (which puts us over his cap; more about that later) and wanted to discuss my DNR wishes, so I knew it wasn’t going to be good. I was already bracing myself for him not celebrating his 10th birthday on Sunday.

The worst part is, when that last call came…I was sitting in a nail salon, getting my toes painted green for Jake. I heard that my soulmate cat had just died whilst having a woman put my feet under the dryer. It’s so hard to watch them die, to say “okay” and watch the vet inject the overdose of painkillers into them…but it’s a million times worse to not be there…not even be able to be there. Long distance is not the next best thing to being there.

I was planning on going to Jönköping to see him tomorrow. I still will, just not in quite the same way.

Jake was such a special boy. He was born to be my kitten. He bonded with me instantly, and slept by my side within a day of joining our family. He was smart, friendly, and bulletproof. His name was decided twelve days after he was born, when Jacoby Ellsbury stole home against the Yankees at Fenway Park; I didn’t name Jake after the player, but rather the awesome thing he did that time on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball at Fenway against our most hated rivals. I was right about that, considering that Ellsbury eventually ended up going to play for those pinstriped goons.

Jake was a therapy cat, and he loved riding in his stroller when we walked to our visits at the psych wards at facilities along Harrison and Albany Streets in the South End. He loved people, especially children. He loved going on shopping errands with me and I would take him along if I was shopping anywhere that didn’t involve food. He even went to restaurants with me, as long as there was outside seating.

He was also a minor celebrity in Boston, known as Strollercat. He appeared on the cover of the Boston Herald during a newsweek consisting of Hurricane Sandy, the Patriots playing at Wembly Stadium in London, Halloween, and a Presidential election involving a former Massachusetts governor. He got a two-page spread in Your Cat, the UK’s biggest cat magazine, and there was an article about him and his travels in CFA’s Cat Talk. He was a celebrity cat guest at the first ever Somerville Cat Film Festival. And, perhaps most amazing of all, he was named Cat of the Year by the Westchester Cat Club and honoured with the Scarlett Award for his therapy work with first responders after the Boston Marathon bombings.

He was a show cat, but he didn’t start his show career until he was two years old, partly because of this therapy training, and partly because he got his foot caught in the top of the escalator at Broadway T Station when he was a year and a half old. He did well, the judges exclaiming over his rich ruddy coat, and his decidedly non-Abylike behaviour on the judging table. One judge called him a “poseable action figure,” and another said he was “a Persian in an Aby suit.” He became a Grand Premier in a nailbiter of a show, needing only one final to have enough points and not getting it until his last ring on Sunday. One year, he was in the top ten Abys in Premiership in all of CFA, only to get bumped to #11 on the last weekend of the season. Ironically, in the 2015 season, he was 8th best Aby in Premiership without even trying…and then in 2016, he was 10th best after having gone to only two CFA shows! He also managed to crack the top 25 Best Cats in Premiership in the Northeast Region in 2015, earning a regional win and placing 21st…again, without really trying. The year we went to the World Show in Philadelphia, he was the Best Abyssinian Premier in the Red Group. The only thing he failed at in cat shows was agility. He preferred to pose on the obstacles rather than run through them. He was also a Double Grand Champion Alter in TICA.

After we moved to Sweden, he registered in FIFe, where he earned Nominations, a Best in Variety, and a Best in Show in Altered Males, Category 4, along with several Best in Shows in the Senior class. He ended up with the title of International Grand Premier before deciding he didn’t like FIFe’s style of showing.

He did like dressing up for NEMO’s costume contests, though. Except for wearing pants.

Born in Canada, he lived in Boston and visited New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania in the States and then Göteborg, Stockholm, Helsinki and Tallinn (and Reykjavik’s airport) in Europe. He’s ridden on almost every form of transport imaginable: Car, bus, subway, train, ferry, airplane…and of course, stroller.

As I said above, the insurance cap has been reached so I won’t close the GoFundMe campaign for his chemo just yet as we don’t know what his final total bill will be. Also, the insurance won’t cover his cremation. An anonymous donor made an extremely generous donation, so I am confident there’ll be something left over for New England Abyssinian Rescue. I will close it down on Jake’s birthday, 14 April.

My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend has stopped running today. Sleep well in Tuonela, my beloved Jakey Bakey.

Aby-a-Day – 10 April: Wordy Wednesday (Update on Jacoby)

Jacoby spent last night in an oxygen cage because his red blood cell count was low and he wasn’t oxygenating properly. He’s still in the ICU, probably for another night at least. I am not sure when he will be able to come home. If he needs chemo next week, depending on when they do it, he may stay until then to save him two round trips on the train. He has got pretty good insurance, but it looks like his ongoing treatment and rounds of chemotherapy will outpace what the insurance will pay, especially if he needs to stay in the ICU. The photo above is Jake and Dr. Cecilia. He has a feeding tube in his nose to get nutrients into him.

They also sent this text. Isn’t it sweet?

Now, on a serious note…I always hate to be “that person,” but I also hate the thought of losing Jake so young (he’s only turning ten on Sunday the 14th), so I set up a Gofundme page for him.

Any leftover funds will be donated to NEAR (Northeast Abyssinian Rescue).

Aby-a-Day – 1 April: Looks like we’re going back to Jönköping (Medical Monday Mystery)

Siiiiggghhh… And we had been doing so well, too. Jacoby has been on his treatment plan for several weeks, and he had been gaining weight nicely. But in the past week or so, he’s been…not himself. Less eager and excited about food, sleeping in unusual places (like the radiator bed, which I don’t think I have ever seen him in before), and just…not being himself. Most concerning, the last time I weighed Jake on 16 March, he was up to 4.8 kilos…and yesterday, he weighed 4.3 kilos.

So…I called Min Veterinär this morning to leave a message, and then, completely by coincidence, Anicura called me an hour or so later. I made an appointment with them, just in case…and, when Min Vet called me back, we discussed it and decided it would be better to take Jake back to Anicura since they have all his recent treatment records. So it looks like Jake and I will be riding the rails to Jönköping this Friday.

Aby-a-Day – 12 November: Izaak’s first vet vist (Medical Monday)

I collected Izaak from Arlanda airport in Stockholm on 20 June. On 26 June, his five-month birthday, we went to the vet for a wellness check.

Of course, the first part of the trip was taking the bus. Zak rocked that part of the exercise.

He was also pretty okay in the vet’s waiting room.

And in the exam room as well.

Zak was quite brave on the vet’s examination table.

Zak was checked out thouroughly…and he was fine. The vet thought he was two months younger than he actually was…but, other than that…

No, really, Zak…you were fine.

Okay, take my word for it.

On the way back to our apartment from the bus, I took Izaak to check out our local pet store.

Zak had a lot of fun playing with the cat beds on display.

He also did a really great job walking outside on his leash, even at his age.

I mean, only five months old, and he’s already awesome at walking on a leash.

Aby-a-Day – 17 July: Cats of the World (Cartoon Tuesday)

Okay, technically not a cartoon, but you may remember when I took Alfred to Anicura to say goodbye to Logan, I mentioned the “Cats of the World” poster hanging in the cat waiting room.

Here’s the Abyssinian…he looks grumpy, like Jacoby. The ears seem a bit small, though.

They illustrated the red Abyssinian separately. Again, the eyes and ears seem small. They didn’t include the other Aby colours.

The Somalis were included on the poster together. Again, they don’t look quite like Somalis, do they?

Last but not least, we have the mighty Singapura! Of all the drawings, I think they caught the Singa best of all.

Aby-a-Day – 9 June: Logistics (Swedish Saturday)

When we go to the vet, we always go by bus. It’s not a bad bus trip, just a long one, but the stops are convenient at either end.

I prefer to take Jacoby and Angel in the stroller. It’s easier than having to carry them both.

The very first time we went to the vet here in Skövde, we tried taking Jake and Angel in the double Sturdi carrier Meg gave me.

I mean, it works…

…but it’s a pretty heavy bag to carry around with the both of them in it!

It’s also a lot harder for Jake to greet his adoring fans.

No, it’s much easier to have the two big cats in the stroller.

In fact, it’s easier to have all the cats in strollers. Since Jake doesn’t like to share his stroller with the younger cats, we took both strollers to our annual vet visit!

Aby-a-Day – 15 April: A post I never thought I’d be making this soon (Serious Sunday)

Logan joined StarClan yesterday around 17:20 in Jönköping. Alfred and I were with him at the end. He was killed by FIP, ten years after my first Abyssinian, Gun-Hee, was murdered by the same virus. Ten years of research, and we still lose our cats to this horrible disease.

I have a lot to process (and not just photos)…but I will tell the whole story over the next few days. But to summarise, after the judge at the Winners Show said she thought Logan was thin, I weighed him as soon as we got home. And yes, Logan had lost weight since the last time he’d been weighed (I weigh all the cats every other week, when I clip claws), so I took him to our vet here in Skövde. I called on Tuesday, and the first appointment we could get was on Friday. They ran blood tests, but we didn’t get any results until very late Monday night, and the rest of the results came in Tuesday afternoon. They said he needed to go to the nearest big animal hospital, which is in Jönköping, an hour train ride from Skövde. So on Wednesday, Logan was admitted for more tests, feeding and hydration, and a possible biopsy. For a while, we thought it might not be FIP, since he had enlarged lymph nodes and anemia, and didn’t show the classic signs of FIP, like the swollen belly that Gun-Hee had. But on Friday the 13th, after they opened his abdomen up to surgically biopsy his mesenteric lymph nodes, they found the tell-tale fluid in his abdomen. It was a jelly rather than free fluid, which is why is wasn’t so obviously FIP.

So on Saturday, Freddy and I took the train to Jönköping to say goodbye to our friend. Phillippa the vet tech brought him into the room and Freddy went right over to him.

Then I got to hold him. I wore my Porg shirt because they always remind me of Logan.

He didn’t like being held on his back, so I turned him over and Freddy was back to check on him.

Freddy went back into the carrier, and the sweetest thing happened. Logan started squirming in my hands. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but the tech exclaimed, “Oh! He wants to go into the carrier with Freddy!” And he did. I made a short video of the two of them (click the above image to view); Freddy hissed a little at Logan’s funny smell, but they cuddled together like they always have.

Up until that moment, I thought I brought Freddy to say goodbye to help Freddy deal with the loss of his Brother From Another Mother. But bringing Freddy was as much – if not more – for Logan.

Turn up the volume…Logan was so happy to see Freddy and me he was purring! (Click image to play.) The tech was called away for an emergency, so we had a little more time together. Logan was so tired, though.

Finally, the tech returned and the sedation and final injection process began. We stayed with him until they confirmed he was really gone.

My heart has joined The Thousand, for my friend has stopped running today.

Goodbye, my little dollbaby. May StarClan light your path. May you find good hunting, swift running, and shelter when you sleep. There will soon be a new star in the night sky.

SE*Melur Vide “Logan” – 9 March 2017-14 April 2018

Aby-a-Day – 9 April: Timing is everything (Part one) (Medical Monday)

As most of you, I think, know, I moved from my beloved Boston to Sweden in June 2016. But what I haven’t had a chance to explain yet is…

…my beloved Boston veterinary clinic, South Boston Animal Hospital, moved from East Broadway between H and I Streets (which is now, rather disconcertingly, a nail salon so fancy it calls itself a “nail bar”) to…

…Yeah. Right. In. The. Building. I. Was. LIVING. In.

It’s one of the few things I really, really miss about my life back in the US. The fact that, for 15 short, precious days, my vet’s office was in the first floor of the building I lived in. I mean, literally…all we had to do was go down the elevator, go out the front door, walk a few steps outside…and yeah. You’re at the vet. The awesome vet that you love, not the sucky one you go to because you have no options.

We were lucky enough to go there three times before we left.

The opening was supposed to be on my birthday, 1 June, but it was delayed because of…reasons. We visited on 6 June and work still wasn’t quite finished. There were caution cones all over the place.

They did have impressive wifi set up already, though!

Jacoby was eager to check everything out.

Angel was…rather less enthusiastic about exploring.

This was our fist visit to the new location before moving. Next week, come along with Jake and me to the SBAH grand opening party!

Aby-a-Day – November 2: Urine luck (Serious Sunday)

This week, Jacoby has had another urinary tract infection flare-up.

It started with him trying to pee in first one litter box, then the other…and then the first one again. Lather, rinse, repeat. So on Thursday morning, while he was trying to pee again, I slipped a little dish under his bum to collect a urine sample. And…it wasn’t yellow, like it’s supposed to be. It was pink. And I’m sure you know what pink urine means: blood. (When you have a cat with UTI issues, it helps to have a very bonded relationship; obviously, I couldn’t collect a urine sample myself from most cats, but Jake doesn’t mind if I do something like put a small takeout container under him while he’s trying to pee!)

So I called my boss to tell him I’d be late, called the vet to tell them we were on our way (they don’t open until 9am on Thursdays), and we were off to see the vet.

They took a better urine sample from him (it was still bloody), and gave him his first dose of a new medication.

Of course, he took it perfectly – Jake’s great at taking pills.

The prescription that we were given was for Cerenia, which is mainly used to prevent nausea in dogs and cats, but also has an off-label use as an anti-inflammatory. We’ve never been prescribed this medication before…and I’m not entirely sure it worked. His usual UTI cocktail is Phenoxybenzamine (an antispasmodic which also increases urine flow) and Bruprenex, a pain reliever. After 24 hours on just the Cerenia, it was obvious that he was still in pain…and he was still feeling like he needed to pee when he didn’t. I went back to the vet to get his usual medications…and by the next morning he was back to his old perky self. The Phenoxybenzamine and the Buprenex work that quickly, at least with Jake!

He also got an antibiotic, but that was in the form of an injection rather than pills. He’s had Convenia twice before, the first time to treat his chin acne, and then again the last time he had a UTI in April.

He took that well, too. And by today, Sunday, he’s back to normal – he not finished with his medicine yet, but he’s chasing Angel, knocking stuff over, and climbing up to the top wall shelf. If he was a kid, he’d be going back to school tomorrow.

UTIs, crystals and blockages are serious business. Jake’s never had a blockage, but he does have crystals, and he eats only prescription UT canned and dry food – and mostly the former. He is also the reason we have a drinking fountain for the cats. If you notice the warning signs (trying to pee over and over again and/or peeing in the wrong place when the cat NEVER pees outside the box), do not hesitate. Drop what you’re doing and go to your vet. Not to scare you, but an Aby breeder friend of mine lost a healthy young stud male to a blockage. She had been away, and the pet sitter didn’t know the signs. He looked like he was just asleep when she found him…but he was dead. She had an autopsy done, and he had a urinary blockage. He was only about two years old.

One thing that I am considering getting is Perfect Litter. It changes colour when your cat has a UTI, so you have another warning sign to look for. And as luck would have it, right now, the company is giving away a month’s supply of litter just for the cost of shipping ($4.99) – and they give you a $5 coupon good on your next purchase. Hauspanther posted about this on Thursday, the same day Jake went to the vet – talk about perfect timing!

Fashion Friday Extra: Medical Pet Shirts from The Netherlands

Rebecca Rebecca Eagland posted photos of her young blue Aby, Moon, wearing a red onesie earlier this week on the Facebook Abyssinian Cat Club. Moon had surgery this week for neutering complicated by one undescended testicle and came home with stitches all up his abdomen, but instead of having to wear the Cone of Shame, Moon’s vet put a shirt on him instead.

This ingenious shirt (which is similar to the Thundershirt) comes from Medical Pet Shirts and was developed in The Netherlands by veterinarians as an alternative to the old-fashioned Elizabethan collar. Made in styles for dogs, cats and rabbits, these shirts are thoughtfully developed to protect pets during recovery. Moon’s shirt cost a little over £15.00; not as cheap as a cone, perhaps but much cheaper than the cost of restitching if he pulled his stitches out!

It seems to be working; Moon doesn’t seem to mind his shirt at all. The website says they have distributors in the US and Canada as well as all over Europe, the UK and Scandinavia, but since they are only available through veterinarians, I don’t really know how you can get your hands on one, yet.

I will say that if I’d have had one of their protective leg sleeves when Jacoby had his escalator accident, it would have been a lot easier keeping his bandages on! Those seem to be only made for dogs, though…at least, for now.

Aby-a-Day – July 15: “The best doctor in the world is a veterinarian. He can’t ask his patients what is the matter — he’s got to just know.” (Cartoon Tuesday)

We all just went to the vet for everyone’s annual check-up a couple of weeks ago…

The Aby is based on Jacoby, of course, and also this Abyssinian in this Iams commercial from a couple of years ago:

And the “regular cat” is based on this guy:

And yeah, that fist bump with the vet? Inspired by BCB’s Paulo…

(Click cartoon to embiggen, or you can view all cartoons in Slideshow mode on Flickr.)

Aby-a-Day – July 11: Jake’s first vet visit (Friday Flashback)

Even from the very first time he ever went, Jacoby has enjoyed visiting the veterinarian.

These were taken on 4 August 2009, when Jake was just 3½ months old.

Even at that young age, he was making friends!

He was also very interested in food…

In the exam room, he just explored. He was fearless even then.

It was to be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Aby-a-Day – July 10: Just another day at the vet

To Jacoby, a visit to the vet is not a big deal at all.

In fact, I think he rather enjoys it.

Even though he gets his temperature taken, and he gets a vaccination, Jake is his usually happy self in the exam room.

The table is a scale, too. Jake weighs 10.2lbs on the scale at home, too.

Jake’s always been rather cheerful at the vet; I think part of the reason is that I’ll take him along for the ride when some other cat has an appointment.

“Okay, why isn’t he petting me?”

Aby-a-Day – July 9: Wordless Wednesday (I do NOT weigh that much! This scale LIES!)

Aby-a-Day – July 3: When is it time to go to the dentist? Tooth hurty!

As I’ve posted in the past, Angel hasn’t got the best teeth. She gets Feline Oral Resorptive Lesions (FORLs) and she’s already had two extractions, when she was four years old.

Now she’s seven, and she just had another extraction. She went to the vet today to get a tooth that was not only being resporbed but was dissolving in her jaw. That tooth was in pieces in her mouth, held together by her swollen gums. I’m pretty sure this was a Stage 4 lesion: Extensive dental hard tissue loss (cementum or cementum and enamel with loss of dentin that extends to the pulp cavity); most of the tooth has lost its integrity.

There are several theories as to what causes this in some cats and not others. Of course, one is that some breeds are more prone to this than others, with Abyssinians, Persians, Siamese, and Oriental Shorthairs heading up the list. However, I think it Angel’s case, it may be due to her rocky start in life: “Viral infection at the time of tooth development leading to a defective and susceptible tooth.” Since other parts of her obviously had problems with viral infections when she was a kitten, it makes sense to me that it would have affected her teeth, too.

My vet is awesome in that she gives us a “Dental Report Card” for each cat after every cleaning, regardless if there are any extractions involved. In this photo, the “before” shots are on the left and the “after” shots are on the right. Look at the circled tooth – that’s the FORL! See how little of the tooth you can see compared to the same tooth on the other side of her mouth? And it was painful, too; Angel didn’t even want her chin touched. It didn’t seem to affect her appetite, though.

She had bloodwork done before her procedure on one arm, and she had IV fluids and anaesthesia in the other. She was also prescribed a new pain medication I’ve never heard of before: Onsior. Onsior was only approved in the US fairly recently (April 2012), and it works differently from most NSAIDs in that it specifically targets tissues that are inflamed. It’s also especially easy to give to cats, which is an important aspect of any feline medication.

Despite everything, she was pretty perky when she got home. And she was hungry since she had to fast and couldn’t have breakfast.

She wasn’t really in the mood for Jacoby’s shenanigans, however.

Aby-a-Day – March 6: Sympathy pains

A couple of months ago, Tessie had a condition that required her to wear what is now, thanks to Pixar, universally known as the “cone of shame.”

She had to wear it for almost three weeks.

Tessie was not a huge fan of this.

It didn’t cramp her style too much; she could still chase Jacoby.

But it did make some things difficult, like scratching itchy ears!

The cone collar that Tessie had was a soft one made out of a soft paperlike fabric similar to what many reusable shopping bags are made from. We had two so we could switch them out when one got dirty (which they did when Tessie ate).

So, having two cones, I did what any cat owner would do – I put one on the healthy cat, in this case Jake.

I wanted to see what he would do.

He wasn’t crazy about it, especially at first…

…but it certainly didn’t slow him down or bother him very much.

Especially when food was involved!

He took to it much more naturally than Tessie did, which considering he’ll wear hats and clothing isn’t too surprising.

And it’s a good thing to know that if he ever does need to wear a cone for some reason, it won’t cause him any more stress. Jake is so easy-going, a cone won’t make any condition he might have any worse.

We all know that misery loves company, so I think Jake wearing a cone made Tessie feel a little better.

Tessie is fine now, by the way. She seems to have recovered completely!

Aby-a-Day – December 19: Winter vet visit

Kylie’s been having runny, goopy eyes lately, so last week I took her to the vet.

It was really cold when we went – something in the high teens, if I remember correctly, so I took her in the stroller with the SnuggleSafe heating pad all warmed up. She also wore a little fleece jacket, so she was nice and toasty.

The stroller has a cover that helps block any wind and keep in the heat. The front is a tight mesh, but cats can see out through it.

Jacoby also came with us, to help keep Kylie warm and to lend some moral support.

Jake is the only cat I know who enjoys going to the vet. He loves to see everyone and he loves all the attention.

Nothing fazes him, not even the canine patients, which included a very active 4 month old puppy.

Lyndsay took this one of Jake showing off in his holiday hoodie for treats. Dogs? What dogs?

Kylie, on the other hand, was perfectly happy to stay in the stroller.

In fact, as soon as Dr. Yollanda finished examining her, Kylie went straight back into the stroller to cuddle up with Jake. Jake is such a good therapy cat – he helps humans and felines!

Aby-a-Day – October 25: Jacoby’s Escalator Accident (Friday Flashback)

Jacoby’s escalator accident was three years ago this past Wednesday. I’ve got a lot of new readers, so I thought I should remind you all about this red-letter day in Jake’s history.

It started out as a simple errand to pick something up from my office on a Saturday morning. I took Jake along for company. When we got home, he wanted to run up the escalator (he loves stairs) and I let him. At the top of the escalator, he let out a horrible SQUAWK!

One of his back feet had gotten caught in the step as it went underneath the landing! I had no time to think, only to react, and I didn’t immediately see the emergency stop button for the escalator. There was also no MBTA personnel at the gate, so I just pulled Jake’s foot out and, not even stopping to look at it it, I held it tight in one hand and went up and outside…to wait for a bus. For about thirty seconds, until it occurred to me that I should take a cab. Thankfully, our vet is only several blocks up the street from us.

He was such a great boy while they were working on him! He didn’t need restraining or sedation, he just lay there calmly while we fixed him. He was extremely lucky: he only had a tendon-deep cut to one toe. It could have been so much worse.

Jake didn’t actually even get any stitches. The vet just used surgical glue and bandages to close the wound. And on the bus ride home, Jake was fairly alert, watching the cars out the window.

I made a little sock to cover his bandages so he wouldn’t bite at them and had all the girls sign it.

Isn’t it cute? The first time I put it on him, he went through a range of emotions…

“Oh, woe is me!” Jake can be very dramatic when he wants to be.

Then, his bandage became a toy.

Finally, he decided to try the Coyote Ugly approach. It didn’t work, thanks to the bitter “no-chew” bandages I used under his sock.

He even got flowers!

We had to visit the vet several time to check the healing and change his dressings. He took it all in stride, of course.

We even incorporated his bandaged foot when we dressed up for Halloween. He was an Egyptian mummy cat.

His foot remained bandaged for about a month. As you can see, he didn’t even notice it after a while.

Finally, the big day came! No more bandages! You can see the tiny scar between his toes.

He was so happy to finally be able to groom those toes! I wonder if it itched, the way a cast does?

He healed quickly, as you can see – he was bandageless by Remembrance Day! But he was so, so lucky. Boston escalators – especially the ones in MBTA stations – have killed people! Apparently, they have warning signs in LA about just this sort of thing:

Photo by Gruntzooki (Cory Doctorow) on Flickr

Jake’s so lucky that he didn’t lose his foot. I know I’ll never take an escalator for granted again.

Aby-a-Day – October 23: Wordless Wednesday (Recalling the Escalator Disaster of 2010)