The Two Phone Calls.......

The Two Phone Calls....

So, our beautiful cat Bob came home and his tail was DEAD! I’ve never seen anything like that before in all my life! It was dragging on the floor behind him! Our first thoughts when we saw it was, he would have to be put down as it would cost a bomb to have his tail amputated, consultation fees and all the medication he would need! It was curtains for certain! Poor Bob!

He been a boy, loves going out at night, and when he came in the morning he still wanted to go out, but we had to stop him. We were at a loss at what to do next. So I decided to put out some feelers, as to what approximately an amputation would cost, I decided to make two phone calls and ask what they thought was wrong, would it get better? How much would it cost, as we were skint!

The first phone call was to the Cats Protection. The ‘Woman’ or BEAST on the end of the line really frightened me. She said when I told her about our beloved cat, in an angry shouting voice, “HE IS A BOY, YOU HAVE NOT HAD HIM DOCTORED???? WHY!!! WHY HAVE YOU NOT TOOK HIM TO THE VETS YET?!!! WHERE ARE YOU!! TELL ME!!!! WHERE DO YOU LIVE!!! I AM GOING TO MAKE IT MY LIFES WORK TO GET YOU PROSCECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW!!!” I was stunned, shaking and frightened, she was still ranting when I said, “Thank you for your advice” and put the phone down. ‘She’ the beast rang me straight back, but I didn’t answer it! No wonder folks dump animals rather than face idiots like that! I was hurt and wanted to ask her advice, but had got nothing but abuse. A young work colleague came into the room a short time later and I told him what had just happened, he said, “She doesn’t know you, that you care for your cat, you should have told her to F*** OFF, and if she rings again, give the phone to me!” I calmed my nerves and made another phone call, it was to a Vet far away. The lady on the other end of the line was lovely, she said it sounded like our cat would need to have his tail amputated and I asked her if she thought he would need to be put down she said “No, but he would need to see a vet.” I said, “OK” and thanked her and put the phone down. So we wouldn’t lose lovely, sweet and gentle Bob but we had to move fast, for his tail seems not to be connected to his body, and in our minds would start to decay.....

The following day, Paul my Husband who hadn’t slept with worry about how much it would cost and losing poor Bob said, “We need to take Bob to the vets,” so I rang and made the appointment, we were dreading it, for there are greedy people in this world who I don’t like and they are, taxi drivers, vets and now post men who steal post!

We went to our local vets and at the reception desk we told the lady there, that we can’t afford the bill, we went in with frightened Bob with his wide eyes even wider than usual. She said, he will need to have his tail removed as it is separated from his body, we asked how much would it cost, and she told us a minimum of “£200.00 (oh my goodness!) Many thoughts ran through my mind like, she has our name and address, there is no going back ..... we had nothing in the bank we were over drawn not a good time for Bob to be ill!! She told us she had duty of care for Bob and gave him emergency pain killers, using a syringe squeezing it into his mouth, giving us the rest of the bottle for Bob, and giving him an injection. She said her receptionist would give us some numbers for us to call who would be able to sponsor us for the bill for Bob. The receptionist, gave us two numbers one for our local Cats Protection (not the one I had called) and the R.S.P.C.A. I plucked up the courage and rang the Cats Protection first, he was a lovely man who didn’t waste my time, he just simply said, “They had no funds and couldn’t help us,” I thanked him and put the phone down. Phew! The R.S.P.C.A. was difficult to get for there wasn’t a phone call to talk to someone, just an answer phone, so I left them a message and we waited. And waited. And waited. During that time we had another appointment at our local vets as she wanted to see Bob four days later there was swelling at the base of his back where his tail had separated from his body. She said someone had yanked his tail vary hard! How someone could have been SO cruel to Bob! She drained the blood from the base of his back; she did this using a syringe and putting the blooded liquid into a plastic dish. This procedure didn’t seem to hurt brave Bob. She asked us if we had heard from the Cats Protection or the R.S.P.C.A. I told her that the Cats Protection said they had no funds and could not help us and we were still waiting for the R.S.P.C.A.’s reply. She told me time was getting on and Bob would need to have his operation soon. We booked Friday for the third appointment and on that Friday we would sort out what we were going to do with Bob’s operation.... I prayed hard, what on earth was I going to do! Paul was not sleeping properly but fretting, yet so far the tender loving care from our local vet was second to none, and there was still no charge to us.

Our local vet rang us on Thursday and she asked us to come in to arrange with a company about paying for the fee, it would be in instalments. I asked if it could be interest free they told us it would be, so the following day we would go in .... I was thinking whatever instalments they set, we still would not be able to cope with it, If It was left to me, I would have set the amount to £1 - £5 per week!  I knew it wouldn’t be that low, so we would still be in dire straits!

Friday morning 09.30 I rang my local vets and said I would come in at 11.00, they said, “OK.” My phone rang at 10.00am I answered it, it was Jayne for the R.S.P.C.A.! Boy was I glad to hear from them! She asked me some questions, and also asked if they could have Bob castrated and micro chipped, I replied, “Yes that will be fine” (I’m sure Bob would disagree)  then she told me they would pay for all of Bob’s operation, care and medication, everything for as long as it took to get him to be fighting fit again! Jayne told me to phone another Vet that they had an agreement with, and tell them that they were paying for it.

I remembered to thank God.

I rang my local vets and told them that the R.S.P.C.A. was now paying for Bob’s fees. They said, “OK, we will pass on the care notes we have for Bob to them,” I thanked them again for all the work and care they had given to Bob. It took a while to sink in, we were not going to go under, nor was Bob.

We took pictures of his dead tail so that we could have before and after pictures and that Bob could, if he wanted to, show the other cats in the neighbourhood who would see him and laugh, that he could show them he did have a tail before...

The evening before we had to bring Bob in for his operation he had to fast from 10pm, poor Bob we couldn’t explain that to him in ‘Cateze’ (talking Cat Language, so that both Cat and Human understand each other fully) so he just had to “Meow.” Later on Bob meowed to go out.

We had both cried about Bob, but now as we took him to the vets we knew it was for the best, and that his little life would change forever from this date. Later on we were told to collect him just after 5pm and that the operation had gone really well, when we got there and saw Bob he looked awful he had been shaved a lot and he was dozy and blooded and odd looking at the back end. Poor little mite! The Vet, said, “In all my years of been a vet, this is the worst pulled tail I’ve ever seen.” Paul said, “If I’d seen them, I would have killed them!” We were given more medicine for Bob, to still be taken once a day and she wanted to see in again in four days. When Bob came home he was ravenous, and ran to the kitchen to eat but we didn’t want him to eat and drink too much in case he was sick, but he was OK. The other cats came and had a sniff of his bum he looked a bit comical in his little collar and no tail. Now here is where the difference between Humans and Cat is, Bob tried to go out as usual for the night, the same night of his major op! Could you imagine a human doing that! We got him a very special cushion and he laid on that and went to sleep. We kept the other cats away from him that night and put them in another room, so they wouldn’t bother him. The following morning when I came down, Bob had no collar on! I looked for it and found it under the sofa, so we left it off, as he didn’t try to touch is wounds.

Twenty four hours after his operation, Bob escaped! The vet had told us he had to be kept in for TEN days! That would ‘kill’ Bob! Thank goodness the night before he had to visit the vets again he came home. He didn’t like the box now, he knew it meant going there, but when he got there, he didn’t want to get out the box, I was puzzled and asked “Why?” she said, ”The box was the lesser of two evils.”

The vet saw him again three more times after that and on his final time there we had taken with us thank you cards one for the Staff at the vets and one for the surgeon who had operated on Bob. The surgeon said when we asked her, if she had taken photos of the op she had told us, “No, I wanted to but forgot” so in the cards was a photo of Bob on the day of his op and the other with his fur grown back and looking smart, they was glued inside the cards with thanks from Bob and us. We asked if he could start going out as the ten days was not yet up and confessed he has escaped the day after he had his op, she said, “Yes he can go out.” Bob was thrilled, but didn’t want to go out ...... I think he got used to using the cat litter. Then the next day he went out, but with no ‘you know what’ he mainly stops in at night now.

I do intend to go back to our first Vets who showed such kindness to Bob and us, we never dreamt we could walk into any vets and walk out again without paying, fees costing an arm and a leg! And all the Staff at the second vets was just as lovely to us and never once treated us like we were not paying Customers; they were just as friendly and welcoming, to us and to Bob.

So if your pet is sick, don’t fear, if you can’t afford it they will help you or give you advice of where you can get help. We thought Bob’s life would change forever but he is just the same as before, there is no difference, it’s just that he has no tail. On the last day that we saw the vet we asked her how much did all of Bob’s operation, medication, consultation cost, (as we had thought maybe she had been a bit over the top with the various visits for Bob to see her, pushing the price up to then hand a huge bill to the R.S.P.C.A.) but she replied, “Everything was £200.00 for we have an agreement with them.” We were very impressed with that.

To be fair to the Cats Protection Woman, she may have seen some horrors that we ALL know have been done to cats, but she went about it the wrong way, not everyone who phone her will be an evil, cat hating person, she didn’t even give me a chance to speak, and I would never recommend anyone phoning that Cats Protection phone number for advise, for she was either having a nervous breakdown, or recovering from one! I know they are all volunteers, but we are still the general public, and that is no way to talk to anyone, especially someone you don’t know and I was worried sick about our beloved Bob.         

If I ever see the R.S.P.C.A. up Town shaking their tin, I will give to them, for I know now from firsthand experience that their money does go to good causes.

God bless the R.S.P.C.A.