Post-surgery Day 2

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: snoozing kitty burrito wrapped up in a green blanket.

I was telling my friend naomikritzer over email today that it's sort of fascinating, the more cats you get to know, how much they differ in all sorts of personality traits, including things that seem very human, like tolerance for pain. Willow, when she had her surgery (and even Ms. Ball, who was also, like Clover, "in a family way" before her spay) all bounced back really quickly. Like, Willow actually pulled some stitches because she really just wanted to zoom around and roughhouse with Buttercup. If Clover wasn't clearly the baby of the family, I'd imagine her saying, "Shhh, just let grandma sleep. Surgery is hard. I am RECOVERING," every time we come into the room to see how she's doing.

She has also convinced me with her sad blinking eyes that I need to bring her breakfast in bed. Mind you, she's been having zero trouble getting up and bouncing around, she just doesn't WANT to. She wants to cuddle into a little ball and sleep a lot. To be fair, that might be the drugs? The vet tech said that they might act as sedatives since she's SO SMALL. (In fact, yesterday, I only gave her half doses, thinking that she was feeling sick and loopy the way she was complaining that first night.) Today, I wasn't able to stop the plunger halfway, so she might be zonked because of the drugs. Still, it seems to fit her personality as we are seeing it develop.

She has earned the nicknames Little Miss Crankypants and Angry Peanut. 

But she really is quite sweet. 

As for the rest of the household, Buttercup spent the first night BESIDE HIMSELF with worry because he could hear her distress and could not come into the room to offer comfort. Willow, meanwhile, has mostly changed her vocalizations near the door. She meows like she's talking to whomever is in the room, rather than growling and hissing possessively. We are not yet trying to do any kind of reintroduction yet, however, since it will still be several days before Clover is even close to considered recovered from the surgery. 

Willow seems generally more relaxed. She still paws at the door, but she no longer seems as unshakably laser focused as she had been. She goes through a lot longer periods of forgetting that other cat is even here.

A good sign?  

We're hopeful.

In other news, I am forced to skip my D&D group tonight in favor of my once  a month writers' group, Pendragons. We have a new member joining tonight so I should probably spend some time today finishing up my "homework" so I don't seem like a doofus in front of her. 



Image: Clover curled up on her favorite green comforter like a big goofy ball. Her little shaved belly is visible.