Monday, September 28, 2009

Joey Was Mugged

Last night I made my weekly phone call to a friend and I used that time to walk laps around my apartment complex. My cell phone service is nonexistent inside my apartment so when the walking was over but the phone call was not I sat down on the stoop. Joey was sniffing around minding his own business and once and a while barking with fierce joy when he heard sirens or a car alarm in the distance. Poor boy is completely blind in the dark but he loves to sniff the wind and to announce new noises.

All of a sudden from behind me comes this streak of fur. All I can see is gray fluff and huge blurry white feet. This cat. A Cat! Football tackles Joey out of the dark. Joey gives a snarly shriek in surprise and falls over. The cat leaps back two feet, hisses, and launches himself at Joey's other side before streaking off to hide under the cars in the parking lot.

Joey is severely shaken by this drive by attack and when I get him inside he has 3 small in length but very very deep scratches. I think the largest could have used one stitch but I decided we could live with the scar to skip the trauma of taking Joey to the emergency room (chemo hell in his mind) for one stitch. I washed them out with hydrogen peroxide but when Joey snapped at me then hid in shame and fear I let him do the age old doggy cure of licking them clean.

My poor baby.

Cats are the highest rabies carriers of domesticated animals. That unprovoked attacks are a sign of rabies. Joey's rabies vaccine is good until 2011. Rabies is rather hard to get, even without the vaccine only 15% of exposures result in infection. Joey was scratched not bitten and it's spread through saliva. And google is a lot of fun but not always right so I'm waiting for a call back from my vet.

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