Festus Abscession

I would not want to subject my buddy Festus to public humiliation, so what you're seeing is a photo taken about three or four years ago.  

Until yesterday, Festus looked just about the same:  give a few pounds, take away the flea collar.  Yeah, ol' Festus has grown a bit in the mid-rift since moving out here to Selle--he weighs 14.5 pounds, to be exact. 

I think his weight gain may be a result of all the visiting he does over at Meserve's and his occasional trips across the road to catch Gary Finney's field mice.

Plus, Festus has a "keep-fill" Meow Mix service here at home.

To say he's a cool cat, just like Jonas, is an understatement.  We've had him for eight years now.

I was pretty amazed yesterday to think back and realize he's THAT old already, but I purchased Festus and his brother Rowdy at the Panhandle Animal Shelter the year after our dad died.

I took 'em to my mother's house and said, "Pick one." 

First, she picked Festus, then changed her mind.  She wanted the long-haired one.

Except for their hair style, Festus and Rowdy look a lot alike. 

I kept Festus and have loved him to death ever since.

He made the move out here just fine, and once we decided the cats knew their boundaries, Festus was out stretching his.

Jonas and Festus have turned best of buddies.  Bill jokes about how Jonas would really like to do a "sleepover" with Festus in the shop one of these days.

I say Jonas needs to stay in the barn with Fuzzy Wuzzy and tend to his job of mouse annihilation.  So, Jonas and Festus are separated by night and friends by day.

Well, the reason Festus would be publicly humiliated if I took a picture of him this morning is that he looks a lot different from the photo above.

Remove a portion of his left cheek (in this photo), and add an Elizabethan collar with a few blood drops.

Not a pretty picture, for sure.

Festus showed up Monday night looking like he had a bad case of the one-sided mumps. Having had cats with abscesses before, I did not have to wonder what the heck had gone on.

I just wondered what cat caught him by the cheek with a claw.  I'll never know, but I'm betting it wasn't Jonas cuz he LOVES his Festus buddy.

I brought Festus into the house yesterday morning and showed him to Bill,  who agreed that sure was a big swelling.

So, when the 60-degree temperature arrived yesterday, Festus and I were enroute to Fry Creek Veterinary Clinic.  Second trip in a week for the Love family, since Miss Brooke had to go last week for a torn dewclaw and removal of sebacious cysts.

Festus was a model patient.  The doctor said to go away for about an hour and then come back.  The staff had to clean him up a second time when abscess yuck sprayed some more after the first incision.

Now Festus has his collar and a drain pipe.  

Come back Thursday, any time, they told me,  and we'll remove the drain-----and the collar, I hope.

Festus would concur.

When he came back to somewhat normal from his sedation stupor, he went up into the loft above the shop.  Then, he couldn't get down.  So, Bill and I brought in the ladder and rescued him.

He slept in a dog crate last night----if he slept at all.  I can remember too vividly the nightly discomfort of those huge plastic rollers we used to wear in our hair to appreciate how Festus felt during his night with the collar.

Plus, eating and drinking are not all that easy when the plastic shields him from his dishes.  So, it was a paper-plate Meow Mix spread for him last night.

I'll be glad when Festus starts looking normal again, but it's gonna be a while. In the meantime, I hope he can run faster the next time a foreign cat claw comes raging his way. Maybe he needs to take Jonas along as an enforcer.

Those Abscess-ectomies are pretty expensive.