(CW: Kitten injured but OK.)
Life is better with kittens. It is also more complicated and, occasionally, terrifying. Freya had an accident this morning. It’s the kind of thing no one could expect. That 2.5 lb kitten tried to climb an 8 lb slab of wood to get to me, cooking. Somehow, what she did caused the whole thing to topple over backwards as she clung onto the top of it. (I KNOW… it was leaned up against the cabinet. How the f* did she overcome the lean?)
Honestly, it is easier to share what I wrote to a discord group than to re-explain it:
[10:29 AM]
Freya just pulled an 8 lb slab of wood on top of her, I watched it happen. I couldn’t stop it. She fell over backwards holding onto it so she hit her back on the floor compounded by the wood on top of her. She got her tail stuck under it because she got herself on top of the wood.
[10:30 AM]
I freed her. She limped and yowled and when I picked her up, she yowled more. I put her down and she moved away then laid down with her hips out. I told [the Husband] he needed to get her to the emergency vet RIGHT NOW. [The Emergency Vet] is open. He left. I cleaned up. Freya is x-ray right now
[10:31 AM]
Both me and [the Husband] feel terrible because neither of us thought a kitten could move that slab of wood (it’s a stove topper/cutting board.)
[10:32 AM]
IF we are lucky, she’s bruised and scared. If not, something is broken.
For ten minutes, I did the only thing I could do…continued to work on my freelance editing. Then I got word.
[10:42 AM]
[The Husband]: “She has a minor pelvic fracture, probably no method of treatment except cage rest for 4 weeks. Coming home with pain meds as well.”
[10:42 AM]
cage rest for a kitten
[10:43 AM]
[The Husband]: “A surgeon specialist will look at xrays early next week to see if anything else to do.”
Once the Husband got home, he told me that it seemed that Freya has fractured both sides of her pelvis. But, they weren’t completely sure. The specialist would look at the x-rays (which I now have in my email) and everything had already been sent to our normal vet. Until told differently…4 weeks of cage rest for Freya. (In three weeks she gets spayed…maybe.)
In the meantime, my friends rallied. Roz had kitty jails for just this kind of thing and offered to bring them over. She picked up Seanan along the way who brought a peacock feather to use to distract Mimir while the chaos of kitten jails were set up. It was so appreciated. It was a thing we didn’t have to figure out while our brains were running in twenty different directions.
After everyone left, Mimir immediately defeated the soft sided kitten jails and collapsed the one that Freya was in on her. Mimir does not take kindly to being separated from his sister. The problem is, he is bigger than she is and wants to wrestle. So, Freya is now in the One for Pets kitten jail (Portable 2-in-1 Double Pet Kennel/Shelter) and a second one has been ordered.
Apparently, minor pelvic fractures are the most common injury in a kitten. They jump from too high, fall off furniture, topple things on themselves. She is young and healthy and should be fine. Me, on the other hand, I’m a mess. So’s the Husband.
One good(?) thing to come out of this: Mimir has to play by himself. It’s getting Leeloo’s attention. She’s starting to play with him. She almost let him cuddle with her once, then rebuffed him. A second time, he went to cuddle on my chair while Leeloo was under a blanket. She almost let it happen until his kitten nature pulled the blanket from her head…and then Leeloo had quite the hissy fit. She didn’t hurt him but she did swat at him enough times (he’s a champ at “hunker and freeze”) when he wouldn’t move that I quietly said, “Leeloo.” She stopped, huffed at me 2-3 times then flounced off. It’s a start?
