This morning mummy and I were sitting out on the balcony with Peppar enjoying the sun and with Peppar and I playing (I won) whilst mummy was talking about when I first arrived and how far we have all come together as a family, getting through some tough times together. This made me think and so today I thought I would share a story about something that happened not long after I arrived with mummy, daddy, Peppar and Mia. It is a bit of a scary story but there are also some Jenny top tips that we learnt along the way.
A few months after I arrived with mummy and daddy I noticed there was something a bit odd with my face, I felt it when I was washing so I went meowing to mummy and daddy to let them know there was something on my face so the could take it off. It didn’t hurt as I have no nerves or anything around my eyes any more so I thought whatever it was they could just pull it off as washing it didn’t seem to be doing the job. They looked at me and noticed a lump under where my left eye used to be, this seemed to make them very worried so I had to go off to the vet for them to have a look at me. This meant a trip in the carrier again, but that’s ok coz mummy was there with me so I want too scared.
We got to the vet and as always I was a good girl, I know that if I’m naughty (like trying to eat a 🐝) the vet will sting you in the bottom, so I let the vet examine me, he was very gentle and he spoke kindly to mummy, he did smell funny though – he smelt of strong cleaning smell, similar to when mummy cleans the bathroom but stronger. I recognised the smell from when I was a kitten in Cyprus and had my eyes removed. Still they couldn’t do that again so I was feeling ok. I went back in my carrier and we went back home and I got a telling off from Peppar and Mia for smelling funny but I think they were just glad it was me and not them so I forgave them for sniffing at me for smelling funny.
Mummy was talking to daddy and she explained that there was some fluid that was building up from somewhere around where my eyes used to be and that they would have to operate again to find out where it was coming from. As well as that the vet had looked at my other eye and noticed that in the very corner there was a very small gap that hadn’t quite healed fully so they would like to stitch that up as well to make sure nothing got in. They agreed that this needed to be done and so a few days later, early in the morning mummy and I went off to the vet, this time though she left me there!
I don’t like it when I’m left somewhere different on my own. There was lots of strange noises and people coming and going, I could hear and smell that there were other cats around but there were also dogs too, it was a distant smell but they were there somewhere. There were people coming and going and then one came and opened my cage, they took me out but where was I going? What were they going to do to me? Where was my mummy and daddy? I snuggled into the person carrying me and purred loudly to comfort myself, they were very nice to me and spoke to me calmly so I tried not to be scared. Daddy and mummy wouldn’t leave me anywhere where I would get hurt so I gathered all my courage and tried to be a brave girl so mummy and daddy would be proud of me. Strangely they shaved my leg and then I felt a scratch, not again I thought but before I could get worried about what was happening I was drifting off to sleep 💤 💤 .
I started to wake up and felt a bit woozy 🥴, I was back in my cage and was hooked up to a bag with some fluids in, I felt odd so, I know this sounds strange, I closed my eyes (I still have full control of the muscles around my eyes) and went back off to sleep 💤 again. I did this a few times before I was ready to wake up properly but I’m not sure what they had done to me, I didn’t feel any different but then…what’s this thing around my neck? Why can’t I reach my face? I can’t hear properly and all I came feel with my whiskers is something hard. I don’t like it, my senses are all disrupted, I want it off!
There wasn’t too much space in the cage so I sat still and calmed down a bit and waited. The longer I sat there the more I realised what the thing round my neck was doing to me. My hearing is vital to me to try to make sense of the world around me, I can hear an insect at 1000 paces but more importantly I can normally hear everything around me, from all sides, I normally keep an ear on what is happening behind me just in case something tries to sneak up on me. I couldn’t hear any of this and what little I could hear was muffled so I didn’t know what direction it was coming from. It was very confusing and really scary, what’s happened to me? My sense of smell was also not what it normally is, I could only get smells from directly in front of me, nothing from the surrounding air to let me know what was around. That added to my confusion as well as not being able to feel where I was going with my whiskers.
After a while I heard a voice and my cage opened, “Jenny, it’s time to go home” they said, they took the nasty bit out of my leg and put me gently into my carrier. I knew it was mine because it smelt of me, Peppar and Mia as we all share the same one, I was hopeful that I was going home but still frustrated with the thing around my neck. It kept getting stuck on things. Then we were on the move and I could just make mummy’s voice through the carrier and the neck thing. Mummy had come back for me 😻 and so I knew everything would be ok. Mummy had a talk with the vet and then we went home and back to daddy.
When I got home I was so pleased to see daddy and he had made my old room ready for me to recover in quietly by myself. I heard daddy say “Oh no Jenny you’ve got a cone of shame, we’ll have to be careful with that”. Mummy let me out of the carrier in my room and I was so happy to be home that I ran out, still a bit woozy from the operation. Everywhere I went the cone bumped into things, it put me off balance and every step I made was difficult. I tried to jump onto the bed and it got caught, I didn’t understand it and needed to get rid of it, it was horrible and I still couldn’t hear, smell or feel anything very well. I tried everything, I jumped, I ran, I lept, nothing worked so I tried harder, I ran faster, jumped higher, lept further but this just meant I got more and more disorientated and kept crashing into things, this scared me and the more scared I was the more I needed to get it off. Daddy and mummy came rushing into the room to try to calm me down but as soon as the door opened I ran out, I managed to get the cone off from around my neck but somehow it was still attached but now it even worse, it was chasing me.
I was now terrified as it was making a horrible noise as it ran behind me and tried to catch me. What was this thing? Why was it trying to catch me? Why did mummy’s and daddy let it near me? I felt mummy’s hands round me she tried to soothe me and I could hear daddy’s voice as well saying “It’s ok Jenny, it won’t hurt you” but I was so scared by this point that nothing was calming me down. Daddy took over trying to calm me and I heard mummy talking down the corridor, after a short while mummy said that it was ok for daddy to take the cone off. As soon as he did this I felt all my senses come back, I could hear everything again and from the right directions, feel where I was going with my whiskers and smell properly where my routes round the flat were. This made me relax again and realise where I was and that nothing was going to get me.
Mummy and daddy sat with me for a while to keep me calm and I eventually fell into an exhausted sleep, it had been a long and traumatic day.
Mummy explained to me afterwards that the cone was supposed to help me so that I didn’t lick or scratch my eyes where they had done the operation as that could make them infected. I said to mummy that I was a good girl and wouldn’t be naughty like that, besides I can’t feel my eyes so I don’t know that anything different had been done. Mummy said that her and daddy were really sorry about how scared I got, they hadn’t realised that the cone would affect me so much but now understood and that hopefully I wouldn’t have to wear one again.
Now my eyes are all ok, I had stitches in them which (as I was a good girl) all fell out and I didn’t get any infections. I’ve had no problem since then and was back to my old self in no time.
Jenny’s top tip
Seriously consider if a cone of shame is absolutely necessary. It blocks out or changes every sense that a blind cat relies on. If a cone is a necessity then consider if being let free in a room is ok or is it best to have some cage rest instead. Cage rest is not nice but at least the cone can’t chase you around in there!
Jenny’s Story 