A Sick Cat

Percy is sick.

Percy is on the right, Merlin on the left

I hate it when one of the cats gets sick. They aren’t able to tell us how bad off they are, or if it is just a slight upset stomach. After the Merlin situation I am always more paranoid about the health of the cats.

I was not a cat person, I didn’t care if we had a cat or not in the beginning. I am an animal person though, I acknowledge the fact that our dominion over Creation means that we are not to cause unnecessary pain or injury to an animal.

A few days after we had adopted Merlin, we were upstairs and we heard a tremendous thrashing downstairs. Being the brave man-

Umm…sure…

-that I am I went downstairs to see what the ruckus was.

Merlin had gotten a bag caught around his neck, and the bag was stuck in between the legs of one of the barstools we had at the breakfast bar.

The more he struggled to get free, the worst it became for him. I raced over to him and held him to keep him calm as I called for Wife #1 to brings scissors. We gently, and oh so carefully, cut the bag away from his neck.

At that moment I realized that Merlin couldn’t take care of himself. He needed us to keep him safe, sure he could attempt to live on his own outside, but that would be a miserable existence.

Kind of a picture of how we need God, eh?

When Merlin got really sick due to him missing his brother immensely, I realized that these are not mere dumb animals. They have their own behaviors, their own way of doing things, and they really care about each other.

His Highness, His Chubbiness, King Arthur

Arthur is the protector of the other cats, he has heard one of the other cats calling out, either in pain or just out of loneliness, and he races over to them to make certain they are ok.

The Little Princess

Morgan gets treated specially by the other cats, they will clean her, but she only cleans Wife #1 while she is trying to sleep…..not exactly the way that she would like Morgan to show her affection. Let me just add that she is not in a laundry basket in the above picture. We have a small basket that she and Percy love to sleep in, she is not a 50lb cat yet.

So Percy is sick, locked off from the rest of his family, he is the most affectionate cat of the four, he loves physical contact, he rarely will be by himself and, unless asleep, he will usually be near to another cat or one of his slaves (Wife #1 and myself).

He is getting better, I have prayed that he would get healthy. Since he is the runt I always fear that he is more sickly somehow and that an illness that other cats can recover from he won’t be able too.

Sometimes I try to recall what it was like out our happy home without the cats, and I can’t really remember what it was like. When the cats are all at the vet for a check-up or the breeder to get shaved, the house seems empty and quiet. I don’t really want to go back to the time before pets.

I’m still not really a cat person, I just like these cats.

Sure you aren’t, sure you aren’t