Sunday
Mar202011
Cat Bites and Wedding Rings
Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 07:18PM Cat bit me last week.
I was my own fault. We take in the cats no one else wants and this one, named Lucrezia Borgia, came to us three years ago. She is now mostly tamed and is a sweetheart when “the wheels are turning” and she knows where she is and who one is.
But she was horribly abused as a kitten. Cats and people can have a lot of the same mental health disorders. Psychiatric medications are routinely tested on cats for that reason. Lucrezia has what, in a person, would be called “post-traumatic stress disorder,” or PTSD.
Just like waking someone up who was injured in combat and who may come out of sleep in a panic state, so too really scaring Lucrezia can result in a cat whose first thought is that you are trying to hurt her.
I scared her because I was trying to groom her too aggressively. I know better. I tugged on a mat in her long-hair coat too hard, and it hurt her. She forgot who I was and got my left hand with two deep puncture bites.
Cat bites always get infected if they are deep, and this was no exception. By evening my hand was badly swollen, and they had to cut my wedding ring off at the Emergency Room to keep circulation going in my finger. After a week of strong antibiotics, I’m mostly fine now although it’s been quite a trip.
When I got home from the Emergency Room with my cut wedding ring in a plastic bag, I said to Lindsay “Hey, guess what? I can’t wear my wedding ring now. Does that mean we’re not married anymore?” Whereupon she offered to get a pair or pliers and reattach the ring between my nostrils.
We settled on a compromise. I’ll get an inexpensive replacement wedding band once my hand heals, and this Summer when we go to the Renaissance Faire we’ll have one of the goldsmiths melt our old rings down and recast a new pair for us to wear. We’d planned to do that on our 25th anniversary, but the cat appears to have decided it needs to happen on our 23rd.
That’s okay.
I was my own fault. We take in the cats no one else wants and this one, named Lucrezia Borgia, came to us three years ago. She is now mostly tamed and is a sweetheart when “the wheels are turning” and she knows where she is and who one is.
But she was horribly abused as a kitten. Cats and people can have a lot of the same mental health disorders. Psychiatric medications are routinely tested on cats for that reason. Lucrezia has what, in a person, would be called “post-traumatic stress disorder,” or PTSD.
Just like waking someone up who was injured in combat and who may come out of sleep in a panic state, so too really scaring Lucrezia can result in a cat whose first thought is that you are trying to hurt her.
I scared her because I was trying to groom her too aggressively. I know better. I tugged on a mat in her long-hair coat too hard, and it hurt her. She forgot who I was and got my left hand with two deep puncture bites.
Cat bites always get infected if they are deep, and this was no exception. By evening my hand was badly swollen, and they had to cut my wedding ring off at the Emergency Room to keep circulation going in my finger. After a week of strong antibiotics, I’m mostly fine now although it’s been quite a trip.
When I got home from the Emergency Room with my cut wedding ring in a plastic bag, I said to Lindsay “Hey, guess what? I can’t wear my wedding ring now. Does that mean we’re not married anymore?” Whereupon she offered to get a pair or pliers and reattach the ring between my nostrils.
We settled on a compromise. I’ll get an inexpensive replacement wedding band once my hand heals, and this Summer when we go to the Renaissance Faire we’ll have one of the goldsmiths melt our old rings down and recast a new pair for us to wear. We’d planned to do that on our 25th anniversary, but the cat appears to have decided it needs to happen on our 23rd.
That’s okay.
Reader Comments (1)
The only bite more dangerous than a cat bite or snake bite or monkey bite is a human bite. Stay out of bar fights. If bitten, seek antibiotics. But soaking can't hurt.
Today I have a little arthritis in that hand. Much discussion in medical circles about the consequences of inflammations of all kinds.
Prairie Mary