Little HayZeus Hop-along

So it's been a long time since I last updated...sorry about that. We haven't had internet for the last weekish, so I haven't really had the chance.

The big (and bad) news around here is that poor HayZeus had a little fall. He was up on the bathroom counter, and while he'd been removed from the counter many times, he wasn't getting the point, so he was sort of given a little help vacating the counter...and hit an open cabinet door on the way down. I suppose that there's really no gentle way to say we (aka Joe) shoved him off the counter and broke him, but that makes us (aka Joe) sound like cat abusers. But we love our kitty!

It actually took us a while to figure out that he was injured - since when does pushing a cat off of a three foot ledge do damage? Anyway, we realized that he wasn't out in the living room hanging out with us, nor had he come to greet us at the door, so we went to investigate. We found him hiding out under the computer desk, which happens to be about three feet from his litterbox. I started petting his belly, which he always bites me for (it's a love nibble, apparently I'm tasty), but he didn't even glare at me. So we knew he wasn't feeling well, and once we got him to walk we saw he had a very pronounced limp.

In the morning he still hadn't moved from under the desk and hadn't eaten or drank anything, so I took him to the vet. We figured he had a really bad bruise or a cut we couldn't see, but the vet took x-rays to make sure. When she came back in the room with the films and a model of a cat skeleton in her hands, I knew we were in trouble. Poor kitty had a broken leg. A broken femur to be exact - the articulating surface of the bone (big round part that goes into the hip socket) broke off from the rest of the leg. It would have to be repaired surgically, either in that office or at a specialist in Charlotte. The latter sounded really expensive and scary to me and carried more risk, but I wanted to do the best for our kitty. The vet assured me there would be no difference in his quality of life if we went with the simpler, cheaper (cheap is really not a word that should be used here) procedure though, so we decided we'd do that. He couldn't have it right away though, so he spent the weekend in my closet (I made him a little kitty kave) drugged up and immobile. :( I had to help him into his litter box the first day, but he learned to compenstate pretty quick.

He had his surgery yesterday and I picked him up from the vet this morning. He was VERY happy to see me and looked TOTALLY pathetic. He has a 8x5 inch bald spot on his right rear, an ugly (although clean) incision, bright green bandages on two of his legs (from the IV and covering his pain patch) and a great big cone around his neck. Just sad. He's doing really well though. We've been able to take the cone collar off because he's been sleeping where we can see him and doesn't seem to be interested in licking his incision (yet). He's not allowed to run or jump or walk too much for the next week, but he's already weight bearing and hobbling around. He likes to sleep where we are.

So, little HayZeus Hop-along is going to be ok. He might have a slight limp forever, but the hope is that his decappitated femur will form a false joint with his hip. He doesn't move around a ton, but he generally doesn't seem to care that he's been shaved and cut open. Plus, I really like the vet's office we took him to - it's less than a mile from here, has flexible hours, and the three doctors that worked on our kitty were really thourough and really nice. :)

Aside from HayZeus, things are business as usual here. Joe is clearly enjoying his job and has joined a soccer league. It's a co-ed league, which Joe kinda forgot to mention (not that I'd actually care), so I'm going to have to be at the games to peel all the girls off of him. I know nothing about soccer, but I'm going to try to be a crazy soccer wife that screams at the other players from the stands. Especially the chicks.

My classes are going well and I've been looking for a part-time job. Actually, my classes are boring me to tears and I'm having a hard time not strangling my PY150 classmates (they are all very, very immature and close minded), so I'm ready to take on something else. I have to be listed on the NC CNA registry in order to be a nursing student, so I'm going to take that test soon. North Carolina allows people to attempt the test without taking a training class, and most of the skills they test on were covered in my NMU nursing classes...so I think I'm going to opt out of the training. Joe's going to have to be my guinea pig and let me make the bed while he's in it and practice some ROM exercises, but I'm sure he'll be a great pretend patient. Anyway, there seems to be a lot of CNA jobs in these parts, so hopefully I can find something with decent hours.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll take some pictures of HayZeus so you can all see how wierd he looks. Poor kitty :( I'm glad he's going to be ok!!