Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Shadow, our 4-year-old female cat, freaked and bit Wendi hard on the chin at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, apparently for no reason. Wendi phoned Ask-a-Nurse, and they told her to go to Urgent Care. I took her to Mercy Urgent Care at 3:25 p.m. They told her they would have to file a report on the animal bite, because it is the law. We would have to pick up a prescription, so we would have to call dispatch when we get home.
They cleaned the two puncture wounds with Phisoderm and bandaged them up with Band-Aids. The instructions were to use “warm compresses—watch for signs of infection—Fever, chills, increased pain, red streaking, increased warmth, pus. Recheck if no better in 2–3 days, sooner as needed.”
There was a prescription for Amoxicillin 875 mg BID which we picked up at the pharmacy.
I called the dispatch number when we got home. A police officer came to the house at 7:09 p.m. and filed an animal bite order. We have to impound Shadow for quarantine at the vet for at least 10 days. And because we are late on her rabies booster, she has no valid vaccination certificate, so the officer had to cite us for that. “It’s a dumb law,” he said, “but I have to do this, or else I get in trouble.” The citation was for $375, but the officer told us that we could get her vaccinated, then talk to the city attorney, and he would probably work with us on it. But we have to pay for the quarantining and the vaccination.
This morning, Wendi phoned Janesville Veterinary Clinic about quarantining Shadow; she was told it would cost $400–$500. We could apply for a special credit card which could cover the expenses. We qualified, and we took Shadow in at 11:30. They put her in a large, comfy cage in a back room. She was fine, but Wendi was in tears as we left.
Shadow and Sunny have not been getting along since August 4. Shadow disappeared November 30, apparently hiding somewhere in the house, and was not seen until December 2, when a friend found her under a bed upstairs in the afternoon.