So I'm cat-sitting for Alex while she is off to Virginia Beach last week for her son's wedding. She is not only our part-time business partner but also our full-time renter, her cottage down river a dozen houses from ours. Dr. Ike is kind of skittish at first but seems to warm up to me as the week progresses. I go in 2 or 3 times a day to give him fresh food, water, catnip, and treats. So my last evening with him, he comes up alongside me and I reach down gently (so as not to scare him) to pet him. In less than a nano-second, he's got my arm, just above my wrist, in his teeth. Fortunately, he let go, and I was able to get out of the house without blood dripping on things and then walk home. After washing the wound and putting anti-biotic cream on it, I check out the Mayo Clinic Website. Right there and then I should have called my doctor. I didn't. I waited until the following evening, after the infection had spread a third of the way up to the elbow. He said if I'd called right away he would have ordered a prescription of high-dose Augmentin. But now he was insisting I go to the med center to get it. There I got the 10-day course and a tetanus shot. The infection has obviously lessened, but the wound hurts, and the anti-biotic gives me stomach aches and fatigue. Lesson learned. NEVER pet a cat you can't fully trust. He looks so innocent in this pic.
