Sick Mojo

2006-10-24 Day 6 Sick Mojo 002, originally uploaded by jessica_beagan.

Sunday I got home after being in Wisconsin and Mojo was acting sick. After 7+ years, you learn the signs. She has had digestive issues in the past, so I assumed that's what it was. I gave her some hairball medicine and waited for the dookie to hit the bathroom floor. Or the shower. I know. I know.

When I got up Monday morning though, I noticed a dried blood-colored discharge in the fur outside her ear.

Ack.

Now, I have no reason when it comes to Mojo, only emotion. Non-cat people might dismiss this as the sentimentality of a woman who is warned all too often, and not entirely in jest, that she is at risk of becoming a crazy old woman with too many cats. However, those with some compassion and perhaps a little backstory on the road Mojo and I have traveled together for better than 7 years can understand.

Part of the issue too is that Mojo is the worst patient in the history of feline veterinary medicine. She was gravely ill as a kitten and only survived due to her ornery temperament. She hates vets, hates being handled, hates the cat carrier and the car. I'm the only one who has any luck with her and I still often end up looking like I've been hacking at myself with nail scissors after running afoul of Mojo's claws.

I warned everyone at the Animal Hospital of Mojo's history of vet-xploits when we arrived. Wisely, the vet and his assistants listened to me. We did not, for example, take Mojo's temperature using the rectal thermometer. That would have been an amateurish mistake, one that I know better than to make after all this time. We pick our battles with Mojo, and her intensely-infected ear was all that we could hope to conquer that day. And we did.

Ninety dollars and two bottles of medicine later, we left the vet. In another wise move, they all agreed that I would have the best luck cleaning out the gunk from her ear. Riiiiight. First of all, the geniuses at Virbac Animal Health products, makers of Epi-Otic Ear Cleaner for Dogs, Puppies, Cats, and Kittens, created an effective product. BUT IT SMELLS LIKE LEMONS! Now, I love anything lemon scented, personally, but cats HATE it. I mean loathe, detest, and run the other way from anything that smells of citrus. Why would one make lemon scented ear wash for animals that hate the smell of lemons? Seriously, guys. Make it tuna-scented and you might save hapless pet parents like me a little cat scratch fever.

The debris in her ear is by and large cleaned up now, though I try a bit more before the twice-daily application of her medicated ear drops. These have to be refrigerated (again, great idea. Let's put COLD liquid in a cat's ear). But I can warm that up by putting it in my pocket before using it. The first cleaning-and-medicating attempt was a disaster, ending with me on my knees in front of the toilet, upon which Mojo sat, sobbing at her feet when she wouldn't let me help her. I cried probably 4 times yesterday, which I'd like to blame on PMS but really can't. Oddly enough though, sobbing works with this cat, and she actually relented. A little.

I worry that if I'm this upset over my cat, what will I be like if I have kids?

Ack.

But, persistence and some Pounce treats are paying off. Somewhat. Here's Mojo with her fur sticky with ear drops. We'll get through it.