Snowdrop disappeared last weekend. Given he vanished after heavy rains, the possibility he was holed up somewhere low-lying and wound up drowning seems very real. He’s been coming into the house regularly lately and it seems hard to believe he’d give up his heated house on the back in freezing cold, plus his regular meals, plus snuggle time with TYG. Or with me.
Then Monday after we returned from physical rehab Plushie suddenly started making with his hurt whimper, apparently at random — that is, nobody was touching him or doing anything. Eventually it became clear it was his neck and it was hurting him a lot. TYG took him to the emergency vet and we decided to let him stay there, doped up on enough meds he wouldn’t hurt or be lonely.
That was the right decision — less chance of making things worse than if he came home — but man, we felt miserable. And it’s so weird being at two pets. One dog to walk. No “drop of snow” (as TYG has taken to calling him) showing up on the back deck for a meal.
Happily for all the whimpering Plushie’s no worse off than he’s been in the past — back thrown out but no surgery, just several weeks of cage rest (I’ll have more to say about that in this afternoon’s week-in-review post). At 14, there’s always the fear when something goes wrong this will be the fatal moment — put him to sleep or let him live in pain — but not this time.
Here’s a look at Plushie from a few days before. Wisp has decided that corner of the couch is her new sleeping place.
Wisp, thank goodness, is doing fine. So is Trixie.
We are wondering if we could have done things differently but I doubt we could have changed things with Snowdrop. He wouldn’t accept staying inside; all we could do was give him the best outdoor life for as long as we could.
Plushie? Maybe we got too confident in his improvement and didn’t stop him jumping as often as we could. Maybe he got too confident and over-exerted himself. It’s a tough call because as our vet once told us, you have to let ’em be dogs, not fragile ornaments. We’re working out ways to do a better job of balancing both poles when he finally comes out of the cage.
Still missing Snowdrop though.
#SFWApro
Hoping for Snowdrop’s safe return home.
Thanks. We’re not optimistic but we can’t quite give up hope.
About a decade ago, my daughter Alanna’s cat Willie went missing after a heavy storm. He eventually turned up some four to five weeks later, long after we’d given up on him. You really never know with cats.
We’ve thought of that. And we’ve written off both Snowdrop and Wisp a couple of times before. so maybe …
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