About two years after we got Bandit, she got outside. She was gone for three whole days. On a Saturday morning, I was sleeping in and had a dream about looking out the window and seeing Bandit in the back yard coming home. Well, I woke up, looked out the back window, that is exactly what happened. I know it was just coincidence (as I was probably having all sorts of paranoid dreams about losing my kitties and finding them because I was so worried about Bandit), but I still think it's cool.
Anyway, so she came RUNNING in, and seemed okay, except she was very very dirty and sooty. She's a mostly white cat, but you'd think she walked through pure ashes as dirty as she was... her whole legs were almost black. She ate like a horse, I gave her a bath, and I let her just rest in the cat play room (that was when we had an extra bedroom... lol). I decided to examine her more closely that evening. She had blistered paw pads, missing claws, infected claws, a burned/scraped nose, and a really high fever. I could tell just by touching her. Needless to say, I called my vet and he saw her for me that Sunday.
She ended up fine, but for about a year after that, she was really disturbed psychologically. Whatever she encountered out there made her fearful and she hid all the time, and she never came to get pets or sit with us like the other cats.
Now, I am happy to say, she is fully recovered and is more loving than ever, but on her own terms. She especially likes to come up to us when we least expect it... hopping on our laps and wanting to be pet for a few minutes. I'm glad she finally got over it.
I am just wondering if anyone has any ideas what may have happened to her... got caught in a car engine? In a chimney? Abused? What? The vet didn't have any ideas, because he thought she would be dead and would not have survived as long as she did if she got caught in the car. He said the burns and such were obviously a few days old. He also said she would have died if she didn't come home when she did, because she was in worse shape than she looked. :shrug: You know vets, sometimes they pull it out of their a**es too.
Anyway, any ideas? Anybody else ever have their kitty missing for a few days and then have them come back injured like that? I feel so lucky... but at the same time, I am incredibly curious what she was up to those three days.
Anyway, so she came RUNNING in, and seemed okay, except she was very very dirty and sooty. She's a mostly white cat, but you'd think she walked through pure ashes as dirty as she was... her whole legs were almost black. She ate like a horse, I gave her a bath, and I let her just rest in the cat play room (that was when we had an extra bedroom... lol). I decided to examine her more closely that evening. She had blistered paw pads, missing claws, infected claws, a burned/scraped nose, and a really high fever. I could tell just by touching her. Needless to say, I called my vet and he saw her for me that Sunday.
She ended up fine, but for about a year after that, she was really disturbed psychologically. Whatever she encountered out there made her fearful and she hid all the time, and she never came to get pets or sit with us like the other cats.
Now, I am happy to say, she is fully recovered and is more loving than ever, but on her own terms. She especially likes to come up to us when we least expect it... hopping on our laps and wanting to be pet for a few minutes. I'm glad she finally got over it.
I am just wondering if anyone has any ideas what may have happened to her... got caught in a car engine? In a chimney? Abused? What? The vet didn't have any ideas, because he thought she would be dead and would not have survived as long as she did if she got caught in the car. He said the burns and such were obviously a few days old. He also said she would have died if she didn't come home when she did, because she was in worse shape than she looked. :shrug: You know vets, sometimes they pull it out of their a**es too.
Anyway, any ideas? Anybody else ever have their kitty missing for a few days and then have them come back injured like that? I feel so lucky... but at the same time, I am incredibly curious what she was up to those three days.
