Cat seeks New Humans

Our cat, the lovely Miss Emmy, unintentionally found herself the centre of drama last night.

She had appeared at the back door limping, with her front right leg held in the air and her paw at a strange angle. That was enough to send the household into a bit of a panic. Nobody knew what she'd done, but it didn't look good.

I was just finishing work when the Caveman rang to tell me, so I drove home and we organised a quick trip to the Veterinary Clinic (on a Sunday night. Thank goodness for our Vet's after hours service!). The poor cat yowled all the way in the car - she doesn't enjoy car travel at all.

The nice young vet, Anne, got Emmy out of the carrier cage and put her on the floor to see how she walked, but it was difficult to tell at that angle exactly what was wrong. So, she picked her up again and tried to set her down on the examination table. It was at this point that I noticed something strange. One of Emmy's claws was hooked up on her collar.  I didn't think anything of it, just leaned over to release it and said, 'Oh, poor thing, her claw's hooked."

It was as I unhooked it for her, and she sat it down perfectly neatly on the table, that it suddenly hit me ... that had been the problem the whole time.

Well, how embarrassing. We looked at each other rather sheepishly and then all burst out laughing - even Anne! It was such a relief to know that Emmy was okay, but we couldn't believe that was all the problem was. Luckily, Anne was fantastic about it. I think we lightened up her night somewhat (after all, a vet who has been called in to work Sunday evening is obviously not usually dealing with such a lighthearted situation). She checked Emmy over thoroughly for us afterwards, just to make sure she was okay after having her claw stuck in the collar for so long, then thanked us for the funny story and sent us on our way. No charge.

Our poor cat was grumpy with us for a while afterwards though ... and who can blame her? Fancy owning such dumb humans that they don't even realise when your claw is caught in your collar, then they take you for a car ride (which they know you hate), only to let a stranger look in your mouth, listen to your heart and stick a thermometer .... well, you know where.

I'm sure Emmy was glad to have her paw set free, but she did give us the 'silent treatment' for the rest of the night!