Saturday, December 22, 2012

 

The Xmas Gift


Last night a stray/roaming cat got into my garage and, in an attempt to get it out, I managed to get fairly soundly bitten before it decided to exit on its own.

I'm sure it was not a total stray ... it was pretty sleek and well fed and I think I've seen it around the neighborhood before. But there is no way I can be sure that it wasn't sick at the time or might become sick in the near future.

So, I went to the emergency room, where they and the local health department decided I have to get treatment for rabies.

The actual vaccine shots are not bad and are given in the arm. But the immediate treatment is to inject large amounts of human rabies immunoglobulin at the site of the wound. I had been bitten in the fat part of my palm below my thumb, so, using a needle that seemed about the size of a fire hose, they pumped 9ml of immunoglobulin into my hand and wrist and upper arm.

That hurt.

My hand swelled up and was quite sore thereafter, though it is easing up now.

Now much of this was my fault. I should have known better than to try and grab the cat but it seemed fairly calm, though alarmed. It even cautiously let me pet it without violent reaction.

But the real cause is careless owners who let pets roam, where they are bound to get in trouble.

Well, that or, because I don't pray to the Xian god, he arranged for me to be bitten. I suppose I should count myself lucky that he didn't decide to send someone with an assault rifle.

Comments:
Ouch! You've certainly been in the wars. You'd better say nice things about God (who is probably a cat by the way he behaves)in order to placate Him or the next time the cat will be armed with an assault rifle.
 
Weren't you properly immunisation protected?
 
You'd better say nice things about God (who is probably a cat by the way he behaves) ...

Naw ... cats are indifferent to people (unless in close proximity or it's dinner time) contrary to, by all reports, Gawd, who is intimately (in all meanings of the word) concerned with what people do, even if he is completely safe from them and not hungry.

Weren't you properly immunisation protected?

Well, here in the US, people do not get rabies vaccine routinely. Is that different elsewhere in the world?
 
Very sorry to hear that. I hope you recover soon.

Sadly, the Christian tradition has a history of hostility toward cats (along with its hostility toward women knowledgeable about herbal remedies), which have been seen as allies of Satan. So there's that.

If prayer is still in play at all but Christianity is out, perhaps an appeal to Bastet?

-- pew sitter and cat lady (yeah, an indoor cat)
 


I actually have several statues and other pieces of artwork of Bastet, since my wife and I were "owners" of multiple cats and flaunting "pagan" gods amused her.

Maybe I'll start taking Bastet more seriously.
 
Had the weirdest dream last night. Some cat with earrings and eyeliner appeared and there was something about healing and something about a large ape needing to leave a "whole raw offering" by a cat door -- Alaskan king salmon, sushi grade tuna, and, umm, "a dozen mousies."

Then I woke up and my cat was on the bed, staring intently at me.

GOT to lay off the eggnog.

-- pew sitter
 
GOT to lay off the eggnog.

I'm not so sure that is the explanation. If there are any creatures on Earth that have ESP or other mental powers, it's cats!
 
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