So, I bet you're all wondering about Callie.

[conuly]

Well, the visit ended up $120. I hadn't realize that using a stain to make sure she had no scratch would bump the price up so much. However, when the vet said she wanted to see Callie again next week and I pointed out that, much though I love the cat, if the choice is between her health and food, the cat doesn't win, she said she'd see me next week for free if I make sure to make an appointment directly with her. (And that's why I chose this vet. I know from experience that they're each and every one of them a soft touch.)

Callie has no scratch on her eye, and she's already doing better. Her appetite (which I'd barely noticed was down, because it's hard to tell with three cats) has really picked up, she's willing to play, and she recovered nicely from the trauma of having to go to a strange place and be poked by strange people. I have an antibiotic to give her three times daily on her eye (not the same one it always was, apparently that's off the market for unknown reasons, the vet was really pissed at that) and instructions to keep her isolated.

I'm willing to keep her isolated, this sort of infection spreads like a zombie plague, but it's harder to do than you think! We have insufficient doors :(

I've spoken to the nieces very firmly and explained that they must not go in to bother Callie at all because of the risk of spreading infection and the simple fact that Callie doesn't like them. This is not so much because of them, surprisingly, but because of her. And a little because of them. Ana finally worked out on her own (despite me telling her for months, but you know how kids can be) that "Sometimes, if you just sit and pretend you're scared of her and don't go to her, Callie will come towards you". Well, no duh. That's because you're not tromping around being scary. You don't often find cats who like small children, or even larger children, because kids are unpredictable and can so easily harm an animal without realizing it.

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Yay, so glad she's getting better! Cheers for your nice vet, too, doing her follow-up appointment for free.

An essential lesson for every child is that if you bother Kitty, Kitty will claw and bite you, and it will serve you right. Small children can't be trusted alone with small animals, nor can large animals (dogs, goats, ponies) be trusted alone with them, until they've learned how to handle them kindly and safely. I have seen lots of cats who like the children of their own household, and are at least polite in passing to a child visitor who knows how to greet a cat courteously. Not all kids are trompers, either. I was pretty trompy as a child, but we didn't have cats, we had hunting-breed dogs, and they were even trompier. My daughter, by contrast, grew up with kitties and a house-rabbit, and she's always been about that quiet, so kitties come right to her.,

[conuly]

Callie won't claw and bite them. The vet asked, and I told her quite honestly that I've never seen her make an aggressive move towards anything bigger than a mouse. (Technically, I've never seen her make an aggressive move towards mice either. She's learned that I coo if she brings a dead mouse to me, but she never has brought me a live one.)

Callie's default method of dealing with confusing or upsetting situations is to freeze, and then hide. It works for her, but it doesn't teach them much of a valuable lesson!

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Ah... then the lesson must be "If you bother Kitty, Auntie will 'Splain at you till you would much prefer to have been clawed and bitten, because it would have been over so much quicker.".

[conuly]

Absolutely.

It took so much work to make that cat even moderately social (and still, she's only comfortable with me) that I'm constantly on their case if I think they're even making her psychologically uncomfortable.