Have I Ever Mentioned...

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned before, but we have a dog and a cat. In the past we've had freshwater fish, saltwater fish, 2 dogs and a cat. But over the years we have gotten rid of our fish tanks and when Ethan was about 18 months old, we lost our oldest dog Smudge. He had a heart condition, was about 12 years old, was terrified of thunderstorms and in the end started having mini strokes (which is what took him in the end).

So we have been left with our other dog, a beagle named Tas, and Wodin the cat. Since Ethan's birth times have been stressful and sometimes our pets really don't do much to calm things as the royal 'they' claim they should... We've come to using an 'ing' descriptor (of course not to be repeated around young ears) when referring to either pet.

In our old house, we'd had a noise complaint about Tas' voice. If you've never heard a beagle howl...they can be loud! Sound carries...there really isn't much you can do about it! But if we let him outside he'd go out and howl if there was an animal in the yard, someone was passing by or someone was teasing him and this was one of the main reasons we started using the 'ing' descriptor for him. Since we've moved to the new house, he has developed severe separation anxiety, to the point we can't really do anything without planning for someone to watch him (Thanks Jon!), Clayton or I to stay home or to bring him along. Tas is now almost 13 years old, has thyroid issues (is medicated), has vet food because his blood is too thick and has had back pains off and on all his life. We've been discussing his quality of life a lot lately, there is always the guilt when we do this...

But believe it or not, this post really isn't about Tas nor pets of years gone by. This post is about our ....ing cat! It's not bad enough he has beautiful long hair that he returns to us (on the floor, the couch, the bedding, wherever he happens to be when the need strikes him), or that he has litter pan issues (can't stand to use a dirty toilet - guess I kind of understand that one) nor that he too is on vet food (for urinary crystals). He is at least 14 years old, often acts like a kitten and tolerates the kids well.

The other night he got into one of those crazy cat moods that all cats have. You know when they suddenly run around the house like they're being chased by an axe murderer or whatever evil they imagine. Well, last Thursday Wodin went through the room Ethan was in eating his dinner (by tube of course) and watching TV. Suddenly Ethan started to cry out, really upset. I thought it was the sound of the cat thundering by him (sometimes loud noises bother him)...then watched him cover his eye and saw a dark spot expanding on his face and realized he had good reason to cry...

Wodin is declawed in the front, so we know that these marks are from his back paws. It would seem that he launched himself off Ethan (failure to correctly judge jumping distance?). We know it was not an intentional act, and we're quite thankful that he missed Ethan's eye (just 1/2 and inch and Ethan may have lost his vision). We were assured by the clinic we brought him to that the injury was superficial and that he would heal without a scar. I'm hoping that is true. Three of the cuts are deep, bled a lot and we all know that Ethan' doesn't need any more scars. As for the cat, we try to keep him out of the room when Ethan is on his mats now.