Oops, he did it again…

Well, I had an eventful ending to my “first” (unofficial) Mother’s Day.  I say unofficial since Bean is not quite here yet, but it’s quickly approaching now, so we considered it a day for me anyway.  Jasper managed to do it again.  He tore off his claw, the same toe that it happened to before (you may remember my Poor Kitty post and it’s update from earlier this year…if not, there’s the links!).  This time he managed to do it in a different way, and I guess it’s partially my fault as well, which I feel bad about.  On Saturday my mom gave me 2 handmade cat toys filled with catnip.  I brought them home in a paper bag that was inside a plastic shopping bag.  When I got home that day, I was in a hurry, so I threw the bag on a chair and then left it there…until last night.  I guess he finally caught a whiff of the catnip, and while I was doing something in the kitchen, I saw him jump onto the recliner where the bag was (we only have a half wall separating the kitchen and family room, so you can see everything).  I knew right away what he was going after, but when I saw him shoving his face into the bag (he does this all the time – every bag I bring home he has to be nosey into it), I noticed he had put his head through the handle of the bag.  I start to walk towards him and say, “Wait, buddy, you’re stuck – you’re stuck”.  As soon as he saw me coming, I guess he thought he was in trouble, and tried to jump off the chair – bag still around his neck.  This bag also had a small tin filled with a jigsaw puzzle in it.  So, when he jumped off the chair with the bag attached to him, he freaked out and started to run like you wouldn’t think such a fat cat could do!  He managed to empty the contents of the bag in the one corner of the room, but still had the bag trailing on him, so he was still panicked and running like mad all over the first floor of our house.  I couldn’t catch him, so I start screaming “Stop!  Stop!”.  Hubby came down and managed to cut him off at the bottom of the stairs in front of our front door.  He grabbed him, but Jasper was about to run upstairs, and almost pulled Hubby with him!  We got the bag off immediately, and started to check him out.  Sure enough, he tore off the same claw as before, and it was bleeding badly.  At least I knew what to do about it this time, and we were less panicked!  This time, he didn’t totally tear the claw off, but it was only just barely hanging on.  I quickly grabbed the cornstarch and we got it to stop bleeding.  I bandaged him up like before, and covered it with a baby sock, only I learned how to bandage a little better this time so it would stay on all night.  This all happened between 9-9:30pm, so the vet wasn’t open, and since we had been through this before, we knew it could wait until today to be checked out.  We sequestered him in our bedroom for the night to keep him calm and keep him with us in case there was a problem.  I called the vet right away after we had him all taken care of last night, and waited for their call back this morning.  They took him in early, and the vet was able to remove the dangling claw.  She said this time he seemed to have torn off the claw and quick, and we think it happened again because it was fresh growth and not a very sturdy claw, however, he didn’t quite get all of the nail where it grows out of the bone.  The vet was concerned that it would close up, grow over, and since there was still some nail left, it would continue to grow underneath and cause healing and growth issues.  So, we decided to basically declaw that toe.  He is declawed on his front feet, which we had done when he was 6 months old, but I know when they are adults, declawing can cause complications.  She felt he would be fine since it was just one toe, and doing that procedure would be the better bet than letting it go and having the other complications arise.

So, we will be picking him up in about a half hour, Hubby will tell him to get a job once we get the bill, and we will bring him home with the nickname of “9 toes McGee” (because it just seems funny, even though it’s not true and doesn’t match how many toes they actually have, especially since he didn't lose any toes, just claws).  They will be giving us antibiotics to use once the shot they gave him wears off on Thursday, and a few days worth of pain meds as well.  We’re also expecting to have to make a stop for some Yesterday’s News, since he’s all stitched up and possibly not bandaged.  Here’s hoping for a fast and non-complicated recovery!