My Kitties Get a Visit

Anyone who's been to my house in the last few years knows that I don't mind having animals around. In fact, I am thoroughly enjoying these years when both of my female guard dogs and my female "guard" cat are all producing offspring with near clockwork regularity. The kids get puppies to play with during recess, I get kittens to coo over, and the greater Musoma area is supplied with healthy, friendly animals. Win-win-win.

However, when I decided to keep a pair of last year's kittens, even I could see that this could get out of hand. The "kittens" were seven months old when I returned from furlough, so... It's time.

Problem: The local vet has never exactly inspired confidence. In fact, he now has over-anesthetized a few different cats and even dogs belonging to people I know, so there's just no way I'm going to ask him to operate on my babies.

The solution? Contact the reputable vet who works in Mwanza--the big city at least 3 hours away by car (4 by bus). When he's visiting his relatives in this general direction, he'll add on a visit to your house if you'll cover his travel costs.

So that's what I did. The veterinarian came with his assistant, and they set up shop on my dining room table. The two cats got their operations and were transferred to a quiet room to sleep off the drugs. I was comforted by the vet's professionalism throughout.

Sochi is only getting a preparatory haircut here; I did not stay and watch!

Afterwards I called a taxi driver I know to take the vet and his assistant back to the bus stand for their return to Mwanza. As we sat around chatting while we waited, the topic of rabies vaccines came up. The vet told me he had some extra vials with him, so we spontaneously took care of the adult animals' rabies shots, too! One more thing I don't have to worry about, awesome.

The rest of that weekend involved a fair amount of post-operative care. First the male and then the female slowly came back to life. Their drunken staggering was both pitiful and amusing. :-P

Later that day--still pretty drugged. At least they can be miserable together!

Convalescence has its perks... The female was restricted to a liquid diet, which meant lots of milk.

I was relieved and thankful that everything went as it should & I still had the same number of cats!

The only question left was, "What about the female cat's stitches?" The vet told me they should be removed after 10 days, but that cats often cut the stitches themselves. Sure enough, Sochi started the job herself--but didn't finish. I heard from my teammates about how they did their cat's final stitches removal themselves... and was not excited about trying it, even if the cat were to (miraculously) hold still.

Then, two weeks after the operation date, the vet called to check in! (He had texted me the evening after, too. I like this guy.) He must have been in the area again, because he said he could stop by in a few days and take out the remaining stitches. Great was my relief, let me tell you!

He came during lessons one morning this last week, so I gave the kids a history activity I knew they'd love and slipped out to see to the cat. It was a quick job, but you should have seen us: I was holding the freaked-out cat in a vertical "standing" position (with a firm grasp of her hind legs), the taxi driver kept her head steady by holding the scruff of her neck, and the vet did some quick work with his tweezers. I wish I had a picture, but yeah, my hands were occupied!

The whole episode took some planning (and spontaneous logistics work on a couple occasions), but the endeavor was a success. So nice when I try to figure out a new thing here and it actually works!