Woe is cat

Those of you that follow the blog know about the demise of one of our cats, “Mango”. We just about lost another: the older cat “Sim Sim” (Swahili for “Sesame”). He didn’t come in last night, which is odd. He normally sleeps inside. I thought I heard him crying last night, but the more I listened, the less it sounded like a cat. I really thought it was a baby crying. This morning we went to look for him because he wasn’t at the front door. We found him up in our razor wire fence, his tail tangled in the razor wire. His tail was completely shredded and all of his legs were bloody. Most of the gaps between his toes were sliced from the wire and as we approached, he tried to jump to us, which left him howling and dangling from the wire. After several frantic calls, we got some help. Sam send a man with bolt cutters. Tight security (our security company) deployed two guards (who essentially just wanted to use brute force :-/). The vet eventually came, and sedated Sim Sim. As he fell asleep we untangled his tail and found his wounds to be pretty minor despite all the blood and fur that was left on the wire.

If all this sounds a bit silly to get all worked out about (he’s just a CAT, right?) I humbly submit that pets make our kids happy, and Sim Sim was one of the original pets that’s helped them through the transition to Uganda. Losing him would have been pretty devastating. Also, the kids blew the last Nintendo DS power supply (110 into a 240 plug) last night before bed, which cut a tie to normalcy and fun.

So here are the photos. I’ll warn you, though: don’t scroll down if you’re the queasy sort.

He’s alive. I swear. And no, that tail doesn’t look right.

The tongue says it all. He’s completely sedated, and the painkillers are kicking in.

This is the graphic bit. The vet says it’s all minor and he should heal no problem. Still… ick.