Okay, so maybe my 7.7-pound Siamese cat is not a vampire, but after this true story, I have to tell you, you may think so.
First, let me set the stage. My wife and I have an old cat, Higgins, a long-haired, laid-back 15-pound cat that gets along with every animal we have ever had. After my monster white cat died, I got Sci-Fi, the Siamese four years ago. She gets along fine with Higgins.
But a year ago, my wife got a grown 13-pound Rag Doll cat who feared every animal in our house. As her timidity lessened, the new cat, Gypsy, didn’t see eye-to-eye with Sci-Fi without my cat hissing at her. After a few weeks, hissing at each other resulted in an enormous cat fight with biting (since all our cats have been de-clawed). The big cat, Gypsy, the victor by weight alone. The results these days are that Sci-Fi stays on our glass-enclosed covered brick patio with a gate at the double doors, and Gypsy stays in the other part of the house with Higgins and our new tiny dog.
I know my cat gets lonely by herself on the porch, so some days, I take her to work with me in a cat carrier, and other days, when I get home, I carry her downstairs to my computer and hobby room. She loves that. Weekends, she’s downstairs most of the day with me.
And so it was last Sunday as I was finishing up for the day, and I don’t use the carrier for indoor trips. I’d gathered her up in one arm (she’s small, remember?) and went up the stairs.
As sometimes happens, my wife, Judy, opens the gate to the porch so the other two cats can visit and look out the glass doors. I spotted the gate open, and knew to check for Gypsy before putting my cat down, or else Gypsy would attack her. After looking around, I was just about to put my cat down when I spied the other cat pop up her head from atop the cat ‘tree.’
“Shoo,” I shouted. Gypsy stood up but didn’t move. I eased over to the cat tree to shake it and scare her down and off the porch. She just wiggled at the top, holding on. That was the exact moment my cat hissed at the other, with my right arm holding Sci-Fi.
Gypsy lunged forward to within a foot of Sci-Fi, and they both jolted into a simulated catfight, though not touching each other. I backed up, looking for the carrier on the table behind me to put my cat in and stop the fight. But I couldn’t get away fast enough, and Sci-Fi was screeching and squirming out of my arm. In motion to the carrier, I moved my left hand to get a double grip on my cat to insert her into the opening, and that’s when I felt two teeth sink into my left hand. Still holding her body with my right arm, I jerked my left hand away in reaction to the pain, which resulted in a pair of fang marks deep and about three inches long on my hand. Sci-Fi likely didn’t know who she was biting, but at that moment, those fangs wanted blood.
In mere seconds, I got my cat in the carrier, Gypsy dashed out of the porch room, and I screamed for Judy in the next room to “put up the gate — quick,” which she hurriedly did.
“This is deep,” I said, looking at my hand and blood starting to flow. “And here I am on blood thinners. Get me some paper towels quick.”
I was right about that. I soaked up several paper towels, trying first to get peroxide on the wounds, then apply some fast-drying ‘Liquid Bandage’ to control the bleeding, which didn’t work, so I eventually just kept compresses on it and later was able to tape some gauze squares on my hand. The next day, I soaked the pads for a half-hour, eased off the bandage to take a picture of my hand, put some anti-biotic salve on, and re-bandaged it. It bled some more. The following day, at the advice of my wife and friends, I visited my doctor, got a tetanus booster and script for anti-biotic capsules. I guess it’s gonna heal okay, and probably has by the time you read this.
I should have known better than to be holding either cat next to the other. I’d never put a hand into an active dog or cat fight, but it just sorta eased into the situation. But I won’t do that again, believe me. I learned my lesson.
I know my cat wasn’t trying to attack me with her ‘vampire’ teeth, but tell my hand that.
