Oh Cruel Humanity!
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

I took Bella in to be spayed on Wednesday. When I picked her up at the vet's she was asleep on her feet in her carrier - tongue hanging out. When I let her out of the cage she insisted on staggering around the apartment like a drunk person. She was determined to continue her usual movements around the apartment - jumping on and off furniture and following me around - just a little slower. Impressive when I'd heard from a friend that her cat recovering from surgery was unable to walk. Eventually I had to insist that she settle down and sleep by locking her in her cage.

Thursday I caught her trying trying to rip out her stitches so I marched her back to the vet and made them put the funnel collar on her. Apparently most of the time Romanian animals don't try to rip out their stitches because stitches don't automatically come with a funnel collar. I initially asked the vet about it and he was like They usually don't need one, but do you want a collar? and I said yes, but I had to take her back there for them to put it on her anyway because I couldn't figure out how to make it stay.

By now she's forgotten all about the surgery and is just utterly miserable because of the funnel collar. I'm sure she thinks the vet and I put the collar on her just to torture her.

She has to leave it on for seven more days from today. One thing I understood that the vet said was "intestines" which makes me think I did the right thing and not ripping out her stitches is at the Important end of the spectrum rather than the - oh leave her alone end of the spectrum. After a very messy process of experimentation I discovered the easiest feeding method for her is pieces of dried food soaked in water set on top of an upside down bowl. Drinking is harder but at least she's getting some water through her soaked food.

So we're struggling through. By now she's used to the collar but it's hard to watch her not be able to do normal things like play. She also can't clean herself (not that she's not clean) which must be terrible for her since she's usually bathing before and after every nap - so 12 times a day.

It was strange though - last night all the stray cats in the neighborhood got together somewhere near my building and decided to have a screaming contest while I watched the HBO movie The Laramie Project. Bella was asleep on my lap and missed the whole thing but it was decidedly eerie.

Even with her funnel collar and her tortured expression she still looks cute and I would post a picture here but the office computer doesn't have the same photo software I do.

In other news Kwarou is being repaired and will be shipped to me in Romania in early February due to a screw up on HP's end - instead of being delivered to me in Romania for free and now. Also, my cell phone is broken so I can't really communicate with anyone except through borrowed Internet in the office - so if you'd like to get in touch with me, there's postcards, smoke signals and telepathy. Or you could just email - but I haven't been getting all of my messages.