Pembirdie

Category: cats

  • PSA regarding cat bites

    I like cats. I even love my cats, despite the old wisdom stating you should “never love something that can’t love you back.” Saying our cats love me is a stretch.

    However, liking cats doesn’t stop me from acknowledging that cats’ mouths are nasty. (This isn’t just a cat thing. One of my professors said, “If you lick the seat of a toilet, it should be the toilet that says, ‘Gross!’” Except of course that toilets don’t talk.)

    In addition to cats’ mouths being a fertile breeding ground for all sorts of anaerobic (oxygen-hating) bacteria, cats have pointy little teeth. Dogs’ mouths are just as nasty as cats’, but their teeth are generally thicker and they make big tearing bites, whereas cat bites are almost like little needles piercing your skin. It’s a lot harder to wash bacteria out of little tiny wounds, and the anaerobic bacteria thrive deep in your tissue away from the oxygen that’s at your skin’s surface.

    For that reason, if you get a cat bite, particularly on your hand, don’t wait to see if it swells and gets red and warm and painful. If you wait that long, it might be too late and you just may end up getting admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics and an orthopedic or plastics hand consult for a wash out. No one wants that.

    Instead, get an urgent care appointment. Who knows, Amazon might even work for this situation. A reasonable provider will give you a prescription for Augmentin and you’ll kill those bacteria before they can do any damage.

    Are you guaranteed to get a dangerous infection if you don’t go on antibiotics? Of course not. But the danger is real, the prevention is relatively safe, and the overall balance of risks and benefits falls on the side of prevention in my book.

    SDG

  • It’s not my fault

    Pem’s main redeeming quality is that she is a cuddly cat, at least where I am concerned. She was cuddly with my sister, too, so it seems to be a fixed trait. She’s not constantly on my lap, but if I’m sitting on the couch or window seat there’s a good chance she’ll be sitting on me at least part of the time. So much so that I even make her get off (!) if I need to pee or do something else in a timely manner. If Birdie ends up on my lap, on the other hand, I hardly dare move, and will attempt to stay put for long past the point of discomfort, because she does so maybe every two months.

    Unfortunately, when one is sitting on a window seat, it is hard to type when a cat is betwixt one and one’s laptop. Not very ergonomic. Pem doesn’t seem to particularly appreciate the arrangement either, and tends to nip to express her disapproval. I find even gentle nips unpleasant.

    On the other hand, this is a perfect excuse if I don’t happen to write. Irrespective of the real reason, it likely played a minor role at least. I’m not someone to fail to take advantage of a good excuse.

    Well, I can’t write now. A cat is sitting on my lap.

  • Cats: needy animals?

    Sometimes the cats are more needy. Normally, Birdie ignores me for most of the day, and I only see her if I pass by her napping on a chair in the kitchen, or staring at me from one of our giant poofs downstairs. Today, however, she started with a single but declarative meow next to where I was sleeping on the couch, after she finished breakfast. She stayed close by as I got my cereal and made sure she was the one who got the leftover milk in the bowl. When I sat on the kitchen chair she jumped into my lap and demanded pets, and as I’ve been sitting on the window seat she has walked over at least four times and wanted attention.

    Strange behavior with me, but more normal with my husband. He is undoubtedly the favorite. Birdie’s favorite time of day is when he sits at his desk in the evening. She invariably springs onto his lap and walks around in a satisfied manner before curling up. If he opens the door that leads to his office in the evening, she sprints up the stairs to ensure she doesn’t miss him.

    I, on the other hand, have more success with Pemberly. Another morning, I ran errands in the morning and was on my feet in the early afternoon with a baking project. Pem stayed with me in the kitchen, occasionally meowing inquiringly and leaning on my legs with her front paws. When the treat was finally in the oven and I sat on the couch she got what she wanted: lap time. Birdie never wants that, but Pem seems to go into withdrawals if it doesn’t happen in a day. Today she has been on my lap five times. She is there right now.

    Despite their reputation for aloofness, our cats, at least, crave social interaction. If Melvin and I are in a room together, chances are the cats will be there, too, even if only sitting in close proximity. They come when we call, mostly. They don’t like us to shut them out of our bedroom. (On the other hand, that may be more related to how they hate closed doors in general.) I wonder if part of the reputation is due to their impassive faces, which so easily can appear bored, disdainful and unimpressed. Based on their behavior, I think their attitudes can be very different.