Quite a few have asked about the cat that put the hole in my hand. Most assume that I would have done him in, but that's not the way I am. Big'un was the cat that bit me, and it was my fault. He was hiding, and when I reached for his front end, he nailed me. I didn't understand at the time why he was acting that way, but it all became clear last week. Back in February I saw that Big'un's right eye had turned red, and I caged him, and took him to the vet. He was a bad patient, but we managed to give him a shot of antibiotic, which had no effect on the eye.
He went back to the vet and had surgery to remove the eye, and we began taming down the little barn cat as he healed. It wasn't long until he welcomed contact, and he would purr as soon as he was picked up into my arms. He stayed off to himself during the days, but at night he was glad to come to our bed and sleep with us.
Then, one day, he didn't want to be touched, and that was when he bit me. We kept him fed and watered, but left him alone, and he stayed hidden most of the time. Last week I put on the gloves and caught him. His remaining eye was tinged with red, and he was wasting away to skin and bones. Friday morning we had him at the Vet's office.
The eye was unresponsive, and was dying. Feline Leukemia was the first possibility our vet mentioned, and then FIV. She tested him for both of those diseases and the results were negative. That left cancer as the greatest possibility, but whatever the problem was, it meant Curtains for our little Big'un. Our Vet put him down for us, and he's buried with Nellie, Hank, Marvin, and Hey Joe. We have lost several pets, and both our fathers to cancer; it's a cruel monster.
