rough landing

As previously mentioned, we haven't had the easiest transition back to Cape Town. Our lovely little home was sealed up for nearly a month during the cold, wet Cape Town winter leading to a bit of a mold infestation. Grim. It was nothing that some strong armed cleaning and a trip to the laundromat with nearly the entirety of Brendan's wardrobe couldn't sort out. But the cherry on top of this unpleasant sundae was when Parker fell from a third story window (we surmise he got spooked by a bird because it is better than the alternative of him jumping) into a palm tree and then to the ground. And the little devil did this ten minutes before I was due to pick him up and bring him back to first floor home. What a stinker.

These are the palm thorns that were removed from his abdomen. The large one amazingly did not pierce any vital organs. The vet assured me that this will be one of those freak stories they tell other people about. Parker is famous. He also had some scratches and has a piece of a palm thorn in one of his paws that will actually do more damage if it is removed so he gets to keep that little trophy.

There is no scale here, but trust me this is one seriously big, tough-guy scar. No one is going to mess with this house cat. There are two more layers of stitches below this, as the thorn penetrated all skin and muscle layers.

He is going to have to ditch the cone, however, to keep his macho image. And also grow the fur back in his bald spot or else work on his comb-over. Overall his recovery has been steady. We had a scare the other evening after a day of total lethargy followed by a hunger strike (even for tuna, which is unheard of), but our wonderful friend Dave the vet made a house call and assured us that while he may have an infection we shouldn't start eulogizing just yet. I'm not sure if it was the fear of his guts being turned into violin strings or what, but he made a total recovery overnight and will get his stitches removed on Friday. He might have lost one of his nine lives (eight of them is probably more like it), but he shows no signs of stopping.