Pole's leg injury

Pole has never been injured before.

Pole has always been super-confident and she's always got her act together. At 100%, nothing less.

But today, something "terrible" happened to Pole. "Terrible" by the diva's standards.

I don't know if you've noticed that my work table was already doomed. All four supposedly "stainless" steel legs (which I found out was not "stainless steel", but chrome plated - yes, I was duped) had already rusted way beyond salvation, thanks to the spraying of the titans on a daily basis.

The four legs were already giving way (sometimes even slanted at an angle, so badly, I thought the whole table would collapse), so I had to have the table changed. Or at least, the legs changed. But tried as I did and a long search cut short, we figured no material (to be used as table legs) could survive the titanic spraying of the titans, so we finally (with gritted teeth) opted for a leg-less table.

A cantilevered table...with no legs.

Look Ma! No Legs!

It was installed today. It is supposed to be able to withstand 60kg on it. My husband sat on it to test. Two able-bodied men fixed the steel rods and sat on the rods - the rods did not budge at all. So okay, it ought to be strong enough. Our cats aren't THAT heavy.

You won't know what a relief this is - no more need to wipe the legs of the table several times a day, no more rusted legs! Oh, yay!

And I was told to leave the drawers open for airing and to let the silicone sealant dry properly.

That's when the "terrible tragedy" befell Pole.

She had jumped onto the new table to explore with the drawers open as above. Then, she jumped into the drawer and it must have been the force of her own weight that made the drawer slide in shut. Pole jumped off, but her hind leg got caught as the drawer was sliding in and Pole shrieked.

Oh no!

I was sitting next to her folding the day's laundry and it had happened far too quickly for me to do anything. Pole continued shrieking for a few seconds and I saw her limping away. She looked at me angrily; I think she thought I had something to do with the closing of the drawer.

Of course I was completely innocent as I was just folding the clothes and had not even touched the drawer at all. But try telling that to a cat; you'll be wasting your time completely.

"You were there, you were there! You closed that dreadful drawer on me! How could you do that to your own cat! To think I've served you for eight whole years!! How could you?!!". Pole looked at me with her steely accusing eyes. There was no trial. I was already declared guilty as charged.

There was nothing I could do but offer comforting words to Pole, who was still limping away.

I managed to catch a glimpse of the injury. There was a small wound on the leg. No bleeding, though. She's so petite and slyph-like, I could only pray that no bone was broken.

How could you do this to me??

Pole and Cleo have the same character - they trust no one but themselves. It's worse than a nightmare trying to feed them any medicine, so one can only pray that they do not need any medicines. Both are highly defensive, as many cats are. You'll never find them sleeping belly-up. Never. Ever.

So there I was, sitting on the chair with the pile of laundry, I was already found guilty by Pole, for a crime I did not commit at all.

What could I do? Human against cat. Of course, cat wins. You cannot argue with a cat.

I could only watch Pole closely to gauge the extent of her leg injury.

She went under the vegetable pots and sat, still staring at me angrily. By then, Cleo had gone to her mother's aid. Pole refused to come out from under the vegetable pots, so I let her be.

After half an hour....

She was able to jump up onto the shelf, do her tightrope walk across the rounded clothes line and get up onto her penthouse.

So, does that mean you are okay, Pole?

I would think so, because don't you need the strength of your hind legs to jump, right?

By the time Ming-Yi came back from work, I enlisted her help to hold Pole so that I could spray Path-Away onto the wound on her leg. But that was a disastrous move. Pole scratched Ming-Yi and leapt off. I managed to spray, but she soon licked it all away.

Silly me. I should have known Pole would be afraid of the hissing sound. I should have used a cotton pad instead.

Because of the spraying, Pole decided we were the enemy, so it was an all-out war against us now.

She sat in protest between the two litter boxes, trying to tell us that we had incapacitated her.

"First, you closed the drawer on me. Then, you sprayed me with some that hissing thing. Guilty on two counts of harming me!!" 

I tried pacifying her with some kibble, but no, kibble wasn't good enough.

 I'm still angry. 

Wetfood finally did the trick. Pole ate. I dripped 0.5ml Vetri DMG into the wetfood, but Pole smelled it out (hey, wait a minute, Vetri DMG has no smell. Aha...you think? We are cats; our nose is 400 times more sensitive than yours). So she avoided the food, which Cow happily ate up. I gave her another scoop of wetfood, this time with just two drops of Vetri DMG. She ate it up.

Of course, everyone had a bonus round of food, thanks to Pole.

I figured if she could get into this basket on the second level, her leg ought to be okay.

Hope Pole will feel 100% again by tomorrow.

Talk about being a perfectionist, cats win hands down.