And not entirely surprisingly I have a lot to say!
So I think I’ll break it into chunks to make it easier.
Firstly we are actually back earlier than planned as Malice has been found.
She had been hit by a car and taken to a vets sometime either Friday or Saturday last weekend. I’ve yet to get full details of who, what, why and how but it would seem that she was found by someone on their driveway, very injured and taken to the vets who treated her without knowing who she belonged to. Through ringing round all the local vets and asking if an unidentified black cat had been handed in my Mum tracked her down.
She was in a very bad way when she arrived at the vets – both her eyeballs had popped out and prolapsed – she still has one sewn shut and will probably lose sight in that eye. The other is still touch and go but appears to be healing OK so we’re hopeful she will have some, if limited sight. Her jaw and inside her mouth were very messed up and she has been unable to eat or drink due to injury and a wired up jaw so has been tube fed and watered and heavily sedated.
The vet is very hopeful that in having us home and bringing her home for at least the weekend she may well pick up although she will probably have to go back there again on Monday. My parents have been visiting her every day but clearly she will be very confused wondering where the hell we are (if you credit cats with such thoughts and attachments, obviously). Candle, our other cat has also been fairly bewildered with Malice disappearing and us buggering off for six nights so despite it being very sad to cut our Tour of the North (including Scotland) short we ended up coming home three nights earlier than planned for Malice.
So very good news that she’s been found, very bad news that she has been so badly injured and we were not here and very, very bad news that the vets bill is already running in excess of the bonus Ady was so pleased to get in his pay packet last week – ah well… not meant to be obviously. 🙁
ick 🙁
Glad that she’s found but not so good about the rest.
Really hope that a weekend at home does see her pick up a bit, poor thing.
Does make you wonder whether they should have treated her without your consent … I suppose they are duty bound to, are they, if they don’t know who the owner is?
Don’t want to get myself into a sticky situation here among cat lovers, but surely it would have been cheaper to put her down, and is her quality of life going to be up to much after this? Still, I guess if you’d come back to find that some vet had put her down you’d feel even more awful 🙁
Poor Malice. Poor you.
So pleased she’s been found, here’s hoping she pulls through the weekend. How are the kids taking it?
She is micro chipped – it is done as standard at the RSPCA which is where we got her from, so I guess they knew they’d eventually track someone down to pay the bill. My name had changed since we got her, she was registered under Nicola Davies and at my old phone number although the address is still the same so I guess they would have eventually written to me to track me down.
My Mum had had the dilema of putting her down due to costs or continuing with treatment when she was found and signed the consent form for further treatment. At that stage the bill was already over £300 anyway.
TBH Sarah I imagine you have just commented what lots of people are speculating on anyway – although I would have had at least two people down for asking that question before you ;-).
I could say that I wouldn’t put a price on a life, I could say that having survived what appears to have been an enormous trauma and injury and survived it would be utterly wrong to end it with an injection or I could hold myself up as some sort of animal lover who will go to endless lengths to save the precious life of a dumb animal. But I won’t.
The truth is that I am sentimental about my own particular two cats, they’ve been with us for many years and been loyal and loving pets. I think that with pet ownership comes a responsibility that if you are not prepared to carry through you should not take on in the first place – actually precisely the same attitude as I have towards parenthood. This is also tinged with a big selfish streak – I want my cat back. I’m hugely relieved she has been found, injuries aside she is still Malice and as it happens we had a bonus which covered half, my parents have covered the rest so how could I possibly not justify paying for her treatment really.
Didn’t see this reply at first today but I’m glad you did reply, as I had been wondering – and even I was surprised no-one else had asked the question (I clearly *am* the most heartless person around, lol). I guess it was less the money issue but more the fact that it seemed they’d gone ahead and done stuff that would incur cost without even asking, iyswim? Given that she’d already had treatment and incurred cost, I’m sure your mum did exactly the right thing in signing the form to say carry on, it’s the only thing left to do, isn’t it? I guess I was surprised that they would even do *anything* that would need paying for without getting consent.
I guess I would feel the same about a cat or a dog – I haven’t felt like that about the hamster we had (he had an abcess on his foot for ages before he died and we didn’t bother doing anything about it, they’re short lived animals anyway and it didn’t seem to be bothering him) but I guess a pet that is part of the family more would feel different.
And I know that if I did have a cat or a dog, more than likely I’d pay for insurance, but I guess that didn’t come very high on your list of financial priorities 🙁
Hope I didn’t offend you by asking the question, anyway.
And I hope you do get the real Malice back very soon, that she quickly gets used to being around the house and finding her way. xxx.
I suppose the *real* cost was far less really. There was an itemised invoice which they took back when I paid but I’ll get a copy of tomorrow but the vets wouldn’t actually have been £500 out of pocket if we’d not paid I suppose. And I guess they are duty bound to save lives or something?
And nah, not remotely offended 🙂
Oh Nic – you’d fallen off my rss feed somehow, i managed to delete a chunk of it without seeing i’d done it (don’t ask me how, maybe it was Josie) – so sorry to hear she is so poorly.