Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Poor Percy

You know it's been a bad day when you sit down to eat supper while Jay Leno is doing his monologue. Definitely been that kind of day here.



My dear Percy is in trouble. Tomorrow he will have at least a part of his tail amputated. It all started so innocently. As you may know, Percy is an indoor/outdoor cat most of the year. He is a fantastic mouser and rabbit-ter. He is also a birder beyond compare and thus spends a few months each spring and early summer confined to the house so the birds have at least a chance to nest and fledge. Percy gets frustrated being in the house all the time and has invented a fun game of hopping from chair to chair under the dining table all the while teasing and taunting the dogs. Percy loves the game, the dogs love the game, it all seemed like so much fun to me.

This morning one of the dogs, and I have no idea who, managed to nip Percy's tail while playing the musical chairs game. I dropped Percy off at the vet where they sedated him and stitched up his tail. When I picked him up later this afternoon they warned me he might lose his tail. I thought that was too silly. He's the healthiest cat I know. It was just a little nip. However, after being home a few hours, Percy was in serious pain. He would circle and bite and rip at his tail. He ripped the stitches out. I had to take him into the vet on this evening and spent an hour or so there. We were able to give him pain meds and a bit of sedation. I have meds to give him again at 3:30 a.m. (hey, who needs sleep). Tomorrow I will bring him back to the vet and most likely he will have at least the tip of his tail amputated. Hopefully not more but the vet thinks probably more. We had a chance of saving his tail before he ripped it apart.

Birds



Before Percy's accident I thought I would start my blog off with this picture. Isn't she fantastic? I caught the turkey feeding in my front yard this morning. I was almost ready to get a picture of her stretching her neck and eating right out of bird feeder when the dogs also spotted her and starting barking up a storm. Naturally, the turkey left when the barking started, but she wasn't in any big hurry to leave so hopefully she'll be back. My sister in KY just laughed when I sent her this picture. She said the wild turkeys in KY are much fatter than this skinny hen. My sister said you can actually eat the wild turkeys in KY. Ha-rumph! The MN winters must be tougher on our turkeys.

In other bird news, I have a pair of blue birds nesting with 5 white eggs. The Bluebird Mad tells me white eggs are somewhat rare but not unheard of and it is not an indication anything will be wrong with the baby birds.

The Indigo Buntings are still here. I thought they had left but I see them at my feeders almost every day. A few days ago I had 3 pair of Red Breasted Grosbeaks at the feeder all at the same time. They are such beautiful birds. The Orioles are back too, along with the Eastern Phoebes, Chipping Sparrows and Wrens.

Oh, I forgot to mention about a week ago I saw my first American Redstart. He was flitting around my crab apple tree. What a pretty little bird!




Now my crab apple tree looks like this. Very pretty, but also very good camouflage for birds. I predict I'll be seeing fewer and fewer new birds now that the leaves are out.

Dogs



A few days ago the puppies came in looking like this. This is Fancy. Tinkerbelle and Rumor looked much worse but I was only able to catch a picture of Fancy. Believe it or not, they smelled even worse than they looked. I don't know what they found to roll in but ... yuk!

I spent my Memorial Day weekend at 3 days of agility trials. We had a blast. Dusty managed to pick up his OA (Open standard) title and 2 legs toward his OAJ (Open Jumpers) title. Dusty is so good, he even makes me look good!

The agility trails were blessed with good weather and we managed to escape the tornadoes. My manager, who lives in Western WI, was not so fortunate. They lost their barn and roof of their house. Luckily, they are all fine as are their horses and cattle.

Knitting

I do still knit, just no recent pictures to show. I'm working still on my lacy scarf and my Mr. Greejeans II.



Send good thoughts to Percy tomorrow. I could not care less what length or look of tail he ends up with, but I definitely want the "pain free" part of all of this. I think it's going to be a long night here.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Bridget said...

Dear Percy - Everyone at our house (furry and otherwise) is sending good thoughts and prayers your way. Here's hoping you'll be back bird-watching and supervising things soon.

Mary - Pretty pictures, they are so springy!

12:47 PM  
Blogger Guinifer said...

Fingers crossed for Percy. I've seen some mighty healthy-looking turkeys around these parts.

1:51 PM  
Blogger Jeanne said...

Oh no! Poor Percy! You know he enjoyed teasing those dogs until that happened.

5:38 PM  

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