Oliver

Yesterday Oliver decided to brawl with something (cat, possum or other wild animal) and was hurt pretty bad. Frances found him yesterday evening curled up in his basket in an almost comatose state with big bite marks under his front arms. We decided not to chance it and Frances drove him to the emergency clinic. They gave her an eye-popping estimate of over $1000, which included blood work, x-rays, surgery etc. Egad! We decided to endure a painful night of confining a scared and confused animal with an "elizabethan" collar and have our own vet check him out in the morning. Let me tell you, this cat does not wear the collar well. Every time the collar brushed into something, he jumped, causing the collar to hit other things and scare him even more. I equate it to throwing a ping-pong ball into a room filled with mousetraps. Frances held him virtually the entire night, while I kept Emma, our other cat, away from him (the collar scared her too, and she wouldn't stop hissing). The next morning she took him to the vet and she learned, to our relief, that the wounds were not as serious as previously thought. Best of all, the collar came off. Now the fun part is keeping Oliver inside.

Oliver has always been a bit odd. Frances adopted him back in the summer of 2000 when he was a few weeks old. He was still in the last days of kittenhood when I first met him the following February. We aren't sure what kind of breeds he resembles; I say Balinese, Frances says Ragdoll. We started calling him "Boo" as a shortcut for "boo-boo" and now I think we use that name more than Oliver. He has had some housebreaking issues that might drive some to sell him on eBay, but we just can't resist his playfulness, expressiveness (he's a talker) and affection toward us. Therefore, we let him go between indoors and outdoors, which, unfortunately has led to some injuries, including what happened yesterday.

Our big question now is what to do going forward. We have tried to confine him in the past, but he either (1) breaks out of the room or (2) yowls until we can't stand it anymore. I could wall off the hole under the house where he most likely had his encounter, but I'm a little worried about trapping other animals under the house that could die and stink up the house. Any advice on how to curb an the freedom impulse of beloved pet with minimal agony? Please share!

Finally, I want to thank Frances for being such a great kitty-mom and our vet for not trying to scare us and soak us for a thousand dollars we don't have. Time like this make me realize how much we love our cats, even if they misbehave frequently. Now go read my friends' comic strip, Monsieur Chat and have a laugh.