The tragedy and an old gramaphone ...

It is always upsetting when an animal is poorly, knowing that you can't really make them any better, but it is ten times worse when you find they have been attacked.  Last Friday, tiny Kiki was savaged (the actual word that the vet used) by something.  We came home to her and tried to stroke her, unaware that anything was wrong.  That was until she started making an unearthly sound.  It was the same sort of deep growl that you hear in horror movies, you know the kind that emanate from the demon-possessed?  She wouldn't let us anywhere near her and we caught a glimpse of something that resembled a cut underneath her tail.  The emergency vet advised us to just keep an eye on her and bring her in the next morning.  It was an awful night, worried sick and hearing her in pain.  The morning couldn't come soon enough but what we saw at the vet was truly horrifying.  Our poor little kitty had truly been savaged, she had a gaping bite wound covering the whole base of her tail.  It was raw and we could see lots of her insides.  I just wanted to scoop her up and make it all better, but we couldn't even touch her without her screaming.  The journey to the surgery had been awful, she got into her box by herself (I think she knew we were going to a place that would make her better) and kept touching at me through the bars and mewling).  The vet was concerned, although it is quite a common wound in cats, as the bite was so large and it had caught her rectum.  We left her there and she had to stay in until Monday.  We now have a small cat, complete with a 3 inch scar, shaved bottom and a lampshade collar to stop her biting her stitches.  She has had a long acting antibiotic, a load of painkillers and is sleeping it off.  She certainly isn't the feisty kitten that she was before, wandering about, disorientated and wobbly.  Mostly today, she has slept close to me, occasionally went and stared at a wall and has sat looking, as Rhid put it, "like an old gramaphone".  Poor, sweet Kiki.  She can't reach any part of her body (apart from the very tip of her tail) to lick and has to make do with the inside of the lampshade, even though it makes her very grumpy (see photo!).  Did I mention she can't hear anything either?!  The sooner she is feeling herself again, the better.