This Week in Libertyland

Good Thing We Didn't Name Her Lucky

So vets are like doctors? 
They make you wait on the cold table.

Little Liberty, AKA Kittysaurs Rex, has taken our home by storm.  She has been a flash.  Dashing around our home like it was kitty Disneyland.  We live in a two story house so there are stairs and a strange landing we call the perch.  My son use to love sit up there to do homework.  Well, we are going on Liberty's fourth month with us.  Now we are getting to the point in all cat's lives, the "visit".  You know that time we take them for the fist trip to the veterinarian to be spade or neutered depending on their gender.  We call it being Bob Barkered.  As the long time host of the Price Is Right Bob Barker would sign off his show with, "To decrease the excess pet population, have your pets spade and neutered." 

 However, as it turned out her first visit would be more traumatic for her and us too.  At about 9:00 at night, I was going down the stairs and Liberty chased after me.  She stopped on the perch, and I talked to her about her wildness.  I continued to go into the familyroom and watch the end of the ballgame.  Then, I heard a bang.  The kitten had fallen or tried to jump off the perch.  

The Perch

As a result, she came up severely limping.  The symptoms seem dire.  I thought, "Oh no, she broke her left front leg."  Now came the problem we needed to find an after hours veterinary clinic.  There was one across town, so I had my son go out into the garage and get down the dust covered cat carrier.  We threw a towel down in the bottom and loaded her into the carrier and into my truck.  We drove to the all night veterinary clinic.  The people were nice and sympathetic but who would know they were bandits.  Okay, they weren't really bandits.  The price of animal care has gone up a lot since I last had a pet.  They weighed the kitten, four pounds.  Wow!  Then came the paperwork and I had to sign that the examination fee was $92.50.  It was necessary to ex-ray the kitten's arm, two different angles.  That was added to the bill.

Ouch it is clearly broken!

Now, like a stupid fool I asked,  "What should we do?"  They said, "She would probably need surgery."

I took the bait and asked, "And how much would that cost?"

The responded, "$1000.00."

I said, "She is going to limp."

They said that they could splint it and it could heal up successfully in about six weeks.  I told them to splint it.  I should have known this was going to cost.  I could almost here them calling their yacht broker telling them that they would be able to make their payment this month.  Here came the papers to sign authorizing services to be done on poor Liberty.  The cost would be $438.00.  Soon our kitten emerged from the back room with her newly splinted arm.  

$438 of desert camo.

You're kidding me!  it's not my style.

We were given some medicine that was for pain and were told that it would make her drowsy.  Everything seemed cool and the cat slept with our son.  He said that he would sleep on the futon in the game room.  This way the cat didn't have to go upstairs.  About 1:00 in the morning it sounded like we had a cat fight going on downstairs.  We came rushing downstairs thinking maybe he rolled over on poor Liberty.  She wasn't on the futon.  She was under it howling and hissing and rolling and kicking.  She was fighting that wrapping.  Biting and tearing at it. Even though it was not time, we gave her some more of the medicine to calm her down.  Things seemed to calm down.  At about 3:00 in the morning, here came the kitten to the upstairs master bedroom.  Clawing her way up on the bed she cuddled up with my wife and we all got some sleep.  Then all hell broke loose.  She started the rolling, hissing ball of cat fighting with herself.  Well, not herself but the bandage holding the splint.  By the time it was actually time to get up and go to school, she had succeeded to remove almost all the bandage and chewed the plastic splint till it had sharp saw-toothed scars that tormented her even more.  We couldn't leave this hanging so it would catch on something, so we clipped it off.  Can you say goodbye to $438.00?  Once I got home, Liberty was all too happy to climb up on her favorite spot, my laptop, and be cuddled and petted.  

This laptop was bigger two months ago.

What's left is very expensive gauze that is not helping at all.

What is this stuff on my leg?  Get it off!

OK, so you say I'm stuck with it?

Well, at least it's not some neon color.

Trying to get the lower wrapping off was hurting her so we left that on.  It gave no support to the broken humerus.  She was now an arithmetic cat, putting down three and carrying one.  Cannot beat a bad teacher joke.  There was one thing to be done take her to the vet again.  This time we went to our regular doctor.  They needed to readdress the broken arm.  Also, the time was right for that Bob Barker surgery.  And it was only going to cost us $500.00.  We explained how she ripped the splint out.  The doctor said that the a splint would be best.  We picked up little Liberty the next day.  The doctor chose to place a cast on instead of the splint.  It was the wrapping around her she struggled against.  The cast might not cause her too much irritation.  

A new bandage in the form of a cast.  Maybe this will work.

Pink, really, that's going to help?

Liberty came into our lives at a transition time.  We had twins that just graduated high school and both would be starting college or university in the fall.  So the kitten kind of becomes the new baby in our home.  My wife and I have had several cats in our lives over the years.  We know each one has its own personality.  That is why we enjoy having cats share our home and our lives.  Some of our readers are new to us, and want to catch up on the continuing story of This Week in Libertyland.  I decided to give you easy links to catch up to the entire adventure.

Liberty's adventure started as part of the This Week in Education on July 7th.

Who knew that there would be anyone wanting cute kitten photos but I got many requests so I posted Liberty Not Again on July 30th.

Then the first This Week in Libertyland was put up on August 9th.

And then the kitten on the computer in This Week in Libertyland on September 4th.

So enjoy reading or rereading about the cutest kitten on the Internet.