Shortly after we adopted Arnold in June 2020, we took him to the vet for his very first check up. He was in perfect health! His foster mom had taken such great care of him, so it was easy to pick up where she left off.
The doctor recommended that we switch Arnold to a new food, so we transitioned him to Hill’s Science Diet Adult Indoor Dry Food. Arnold isn’t very picky so he had no problem switching to a new food. Other than that, Arnold’s first vet visit was uneventful.
When we first adopted Arnold, he quickly grew to love watching the fish swim around in our 55-gallon freshwater aquarium. Who could blame him? Fish ARE pretty fun to watch! He would jump up to the front of the tank to bat at the fish, and there was one fish in particular who liked to “play” back by swimming around behind the glass. So cute!
We didn’t realize the glass shelves at the bottom of the aquarium stand were problematic. One day Arnold must have landed on the edge of one of those shelves and cut his back, right foot. Poor thing!
I felt so awful. I never anticipated that he would’ve hurt himself like that! Admittedly our first cat, Carley, was MUCH less active. She didn’t watch the fish, much less try to jump and play with them!
I rushed Arnold straight to the vet’s office, which was thankfully close by and still open for the day. The vet tech met us at the car and took him inside to get checked. (Thanks to the pandemic, I wasn’t able to go inside with him.)
The doctor decided he needed stitches in his foot. He was stitched up very quickly and we were headed home. Of course he had to wear the “cone of shame” for a couple of weeks, until the stitches could be removed.
Arnold with a cone was a sad sight to see. At first he looked so droopy and miserable, but he learned to live with it pretty well. He resumed his fish-watching activities, along with all of his other regular pastimes.
After a few days, we learned that Arnold is a true contortionist. He managed to reach his mouth around the edge of the cone and he pulled his stitches out of his foot! Back to the vet’s office we went to have the stitches re-done and we went home with a new, longer-sided cone.
Arnold’s foot healed up very quickly after that. It took a while for his fur to grow back, but now we can’t even tell anything ever happened.
Throughout all of this, we learned an important lesson: We have a responsibility to be our cat’s protector! We have to think for them because they probably won’t be careful like they “should”. Did you know the intelligence of an adult cat equals that of a 2 to 3 year old child? So we have to protect them and look out for them just like we would a toddler!
We’re so thankful for Arnold’s recovery and continued health.
