Well, when I announced on Telegram and elsewhere that I had missed the deadline for copying the Debian Stretch folder from the Sury repository for php, because I was busy rescuing a kitten, some thought I had come up with a funny excuse for the oversight and made the whole story up. But I had not! So, as promised, here is the story of Thésée, as we have just named the kitten we had to look after. After all, what would the Internet be without cat stories?
Thésée is a kitten born nearby who, like other neighbourhood cats, sometimes comes to our house for food. On Tuesday, while I was taking boxes by car to store at the office about 200 metres away, Thésée was apparently hidden… in the engine!
The result was not pretty: a torn, burned ear, bruises, and above all a completely shattered hind leg, with a broken bone and the other part "hanging", attached only by muscle. Despite his condition, he was not easy to catch, but I managed it.
We then quickly call the veterinarian who takes care of Pulsar (our female cat), who is also a survivor, having liver disease, but he is away and cannot pick him up until Thursday. He asks whether we can keep him warm in the meantime.
We get straight to work setting something up for him. Despite his sorry state, he does not seem to be in pain. He eats well, especially the ham we cut into little pieces and feed him by hand, and drinks the water we give him. He is alert and constantly wants affection. We put him in front of the glass door so he can see his mother, then try to bring her in to nurse him… but she simply raids his food bowl and retreats after her "theft".
A little time passes… he calls out. He has just done his business. After bathing him, we see that his leg is in a really bad state and seems infected. I clean and disinfect the wound anyway. He lets me do it without flinching. We quickly prepare Pulsar’s carrier, lining the bottom with litter and putting food and water within easy reach.
The next morning: he seems to have perked up. He is livelier, eats more and is still drinking. He is very alert.
On Thursday, the vet finally arrives. We had been hopeful. He examines him quickly, and the prognosis is not good: his leg is gangrenous. He explains that we can either put him down to spare him needless suffering or try to save him, but there is a significant risk that he will never wake from the anaesthetic because he is so small.
I ask whether he thinks we can save it (the leg). He replies: "the leg, no, but the cat, yes". My beloved and I exchange a quick glance. Given his determination to survive and our initial efforts, we cannot bring ourselves to end his life. We choose option 2, despite the high risk and cost (€800).
A small spoiler to reassure sensitive souls: I have just taken this photo while I am writing this post.
The next morning, after examining his leg before surgery to see whether it can be saved, the vet confirms that it is too badly damaged and will have to be amputated. A few hours go by… is he going to wake up? "No news yet"… more time passes, then the answer comes: he is awake, but it is now that his fight begins: the next hours will be decisive for his chances of survival!
The night passes… the news comes the next morning: it is bad. His condition is critical. The infection in his leg has spread to the rest of his body, and he faces a very tough battle to survive. I ask the vet, honestly, whether he has ever seen any survive in this state. He replies "yes *BUT*, I have also seen many die", OK, there is still a little more than hope. We cross our fingers… The thing is, in 2 days we have already become very attached to him!
Another 24 hours pass. I wake from a dream in which I received a message from the vet saying he was recovering, only to learn a few hours later that he had died on the journey… My anxiety grows… A few hours pass, and news finally arrives: against all expectations, he has finally fought off the infection and is recovering: so well that the veterinarian thinks he will be able to bring him back to us on Monday!
It is Monday morning (today) and a car arrives… A lovely surprise: it is the vet, and Thésée is there too.
He is not out of the woods yet, but things are heading the right way. He is doing well. He must take an antibiotic every day and have a saltwater bath whenever he poos to avoid infection, but he finally has a good chance of pulling through.
Now, granted, he did not eliminate the monsters and the brigands who infested the coastal road leading from Troezen to Athens. Nor did he enter the labyrinth created by Daedalus to defeat the Minotaur there… only my engine, and… he did not need Ariadne’s thread to get out of it, but I think he has done enough to deserve his hero’s name: Thésée, welcome to the family!
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Christophe Casalegno
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