Friday, February 7, 2014

The Cat Lady With No Cats

I wanted to say Spinster instead of Cat Lady but no matter how many places I looked at for the definition of Spinster, I just couldn’t justify bending the word when it was clear the word only had two true meanings and neither was applicable to me.  Spinster: (1) A woman whose occupation is to spin. No, not applicable as spinning in a circle makes me dizzy & spinning at the gym; thank God my knee won’t allow it, never cared for bike riding. Oh, it means a woman who spins wool for her wages. Ok, that one not applicable either even though I bet my allergies would have gotten me out of spinning and in a job that didn’t require touching wool. (2) An unmarried woman who is past the usual age for marrying and is considered unlikely to marry.  No, not applicable either.  I am unmarried and unlikely to marry.   However, since I have had more than one marriage, this disqualifies me from describing myself as a Spinster in order to be in compliance with worldwide appreciation of words being used properly.
Anyway, I recently read a story on my favorite British news site, Mail Online.com (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html) about how even a tiny cat bite could potentially kill a person because a cat’s teeth are much sharper than a dogs and puncture more deeply (one of my docs said like a snakebite).  It reminded me of my own “cat bite story” because my cat bite was very bad and is why I say I am a “cat lady” so to speak, but with no cats.  
This is actually a frustrating thing because they say that people live longer with pets.  My allergies prohibited me from cats during childhood and I wasn’t interested in anyone’s dogs so I’ve never really had a pet of my own.  But I always intended to give it a try. Wait a minute, isn’t taking care of children and husbands a little like tending to pets?  After being around one of my ex-fiancĂ©’s cat’s since it was a kitten, I wanted to take her with me when I moved out and he agreed.   
I was only moving 3 miles away, it was on good terms and his family and friends all pitched in to help me move.  No, it wasn’t a “help the bitch be gone” thing, it was a friend thing. The people I met in Seattle are among the most extraordinary I have ever had the privilege to know.  I love them dearly and hold them close to my heart and hope to always know them. 
We were on our last trip over to my new condo and Sophia, The Princess Kitty, was coming with me.  However, I did not know you should not try to put a cat in a vehicle without it being in a crate or a box.  She bit me and it swelled up like a softball and scared me and hurt like a mutha’, but I was still breathing with no allergic reaction of any kind.  I was already in the throes of anxiety and adrenalin from moving so didn’t have time for a cat bite.  It looked like there was maybe fluid in the bite area so ran in and leaned over the sink and punched my hand with my other hand and a lot of fluid came out (ew, gross!) I washed it then wrapped it in a towel and continued moving.  About an hour after we were done, my ex called to check on me and though I should go to the ER.  I thought it was silly but he asked that I at least call the Dr. after hour line.  They told me I had to go to the ER but I still thought it was much ado about nothing and was going to go to my Dr. first thing in the morning.  Then the on call Dr. called me and told me I HAD TO GO TO THE ER, STAT!  I went to the ER and was kinda’ embarrassed to say I had a cat bite and expected to be there for a few hours.  Wrong, bucko…  it seems as if a cat bite will put you right into a treatment room and a Dr. not far behind.  And not far behind them, will be the Health Department doing an investigation as hospitals report cat bites to them.
After I was told I was very lucky because after 4 or 5 hours it sometimes can be too late to save someone from a raging infection caused by the sometimes lethal poison of a cat bite (I came in around hour 4). Now, that news did give me an asthma attack.  Because of my penicillin and antibiotic allergies, it was tough to find a drug combo I could take. I was really sick for a week or so and then it seemed like it drug on forever because it took a while to recover from being that sick.  I was exhausted, in pain, in a sling, sick from all the drugs, trying to work.  It actually took several months before all of the bruising, soreness and subsequent infections I contracted to all go away.   
Needless to say, even today, cats terrify me a bit since I am so afraid I will get bit again. 
I wrote about my “cat bite” when it happened in a piece I titled “Virulent” which you can read at this link: http://en.bloguru.com/13princessbeach/108156/virulent.  And the follow-up piece about what happened to Sophia, The Princess Kitty is here at: http://en.bloguru.com/13princessbeach/108160/the-rest-of-the-story.
 
 

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