The night before Easter, our cat Leo had been acting funny: creeping around the house, staring fixedly into the distance like he was seeing things, and yowling. It was sufficiently atypical that I put my camera, our earthquake book and big flashlight by the back door because I thought he was a harbinger of doom.
The next morning, after our egg hunt, he was still acting oddly so we decided to take him to the vet. That was an adventure. In his pain and confusion, he would flatten himself on the sofa, draw his ears back, and fix you with a glare that meant business, all the while screeching.
At one point my husband had on big thick oven mitts that went up to his elbows and I had a bath towel wrapped around my arm like I was hunting with a falcon. During one of Leo’s calmer moments, I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and got him into the carrier.
It turns out (we’re guessing) that while he was parkouring from roof to roof, he had fallen and broke his sternum. $400. later, he was in possession of 3 pain pills and his X-ray on a dvd.
Our cats could probably make a tour of the neighborhood without ever touching the ground. Our other cat climbs the tree in our neighbor’s front yard, jumps to the roof and hugs the side of the house until he reaches the open window on the balcony. My neighbor told me that her husband woke up one morning and our cat was in bed with him.
So Leo is stuck inside for at least three days and he is not happy. Luckily, when he’s not sleeping, he’s getting lots of cuddles and treats.