Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Friday, October 07, 2005
The Story Of A Friday
This morning I dragged myself from a restless bed and made toast for breakfast. Everything going like a normal, well, normal for me, morning...was watching some morning show on tv and the cats were running around wrestling and fighting and they rolled down the hall into my room, growling hissing etc.
A few minutes later my phone rings. I was waiting for a call, so I figured that was it. But even before it rang I kept hearing this weird meow coming from my room, so I got up to go get the phone, and walked into my room to find Curtis wrestling with a black electrical cord that was plugged up charging the battery for my bike lamp. StellaLuna was pawing at the cord too. THEN I realized he was actually tangled in it. So I'm immediatly on the floor, trying to figure out how bad it is, and he's gasping for breath and crying. Stella is sitting beside him licking his ears and face, looking at me like "DO something!"
Ok. The cord is wrapped tight around his throat, double knotted, and was somehow twisted up all the way to the wall. I had to start at the wall, unplugging the charger, and beginning a really slow process of unwinding it so I could allow some slack at his neck. After about 20 seconds, which seemed like minutes, I looked up at the table to see if I could spot my scissors. I had just seen them earlier and thought there was no time to unwind the whole cord, and I needed to cut it. He was literally in a little heap at this point, gasping and making these feeble little wimpering sounds. And I was frantically trying to get the cord undone as fast as I could.
Finally I unwound it to the table leg, but then he had wrapped it around the table leg about 15 times and there was no way I could unwind it with any ease, so I started pulling on the knot at his neck, trying to get it lose enough for him to breath. It seemed impossible, I glanced back for the scissors but couldn't see them, so I just started where I could, losening the cord around the leg of the table enough to unthread the charger/plug part, praying to some God some where to help me and give him enough time for me to get the cord off him. The charger plug was bulky and needed a lot of slack to unthread throught he loops around the table leg. I got most of it done, and started working slack in the cord by his throat. He was just crouched, not making any noise, not moving, kindof slouched to the left, and I just kept picking him up so he would be closer to the leg and reduce the pull on his throat. I could barely hear little gasps he was taking.
My hands were shaking and I was about to scream, I could not get it undone. There was still a thick knot in the cord that was around his neck, and I was doing everything I could to losen it enough to pull his head through the loop. Finally, thank God, it worked, I had it loose enough to make the loop bigger and eventually got it over his head. I just picked him up and started crying so hard I couldn't breath myself. I thought I was about to collapse, the adrenaline was surging so fast in my blood that I felt like my body was trying to decide whether it would explode, or completely shut down. I felt completely helpless and scared and in shock, I was shaking so hard I couldn't even get up.
I kept thinking "this is NOT a good way to start the day"...then I realized that was the wrong process. The real deal is that I could have ignored the meows, thinking they were play fighting, or I could have been gone, not even home, and Curtis would have strangled himself. But I was here, and he's ok. I've never been so thankful.
A few minutes later my phone rings. I was waiting for a call, so I figured that was it. But even before it rang I kept hearing this weird meow coming from my room, so I got up to go get the phone, and walked into my room to find Curtis wrestling with a black electrical cord that was plugged up charging the battery for my bike lamp. StellaLuna was pawing at the cord too. THEN I realized he was actually tangled in it. So I'm immediatly on the floor, trying to figure out how bad it is, and he's gasping for breath and crying. Stella is sitting beside him licking his ears and face, looking at me like "DO something!"
Ok. The cord is wrapped tight around his throat, double knotted, and was somehow twisted up all the way to the wall. I had to start at the wall, unplugging the charger, and beginning a really slow process of unwinding it so I could allow some slack at his neck. After about 20 seconds, which seemed like minutes, I looked up at the table to see if I could spot my scissors. I had just seen them earlier and thought there was no time to unwind the whole cord, and I needed to cut it. He was literally in a little heap at this point, gasping and making these feeble little wimpering sounds. And I was frantically trying to get the cord undone as fast as I could.
Finally I unwound it to the table leg, but then he had wrapped it around the table leg about 15 times and there was no way I could unwind it with any ease, so I started pulling on the knot at his neck, trying to get it lose enough for him to breath. It seemed impossible, I glanced back for the scissors but couldn't see them, so I just started where I could, losening the cord around the leg of the table enough to unthread the charger/plug part, praying to some God some where to help me and give him enough time for me to get the cord off him. The charger plug was bulky and needed a lot of slack to unthread throught he loops around the table leg. I got most of it done, and started working slack in the cord by his throat. He was just crouched, not making any noise, not moving, kindof slouched to the left, and I just kept picking him up so he would be closer to the leg and reduce the pull on his throat. I could barely hear little gasps he was taking.
My hands were shaking and I was about to scream, I could not get it undone. There was still a thick knot in the cord that was around his neck, and I was doing everything I could to losen it enough to pull his head through the loop. Finally, thank God, it worked, I had it loose enough to make the loop bigger and eventually got it over his head. I just picked him up and started crying so hard I couldn't breath myself. I thought I was about to collapse, the adrenaline was surging so fast in my blood that I felt like my body was trying to decide whether it would explode, or completely shut down. I felt completely helpless and scared and in shock, I was shaking so hard I couldn't even get up.
I kept thinking "this is NOT a good way to start the day"...then I realized that was the wrong process. The real deal is that I could have ignored the meows, thinking they were play fighting, or I could have been gone, not even home, and Curtis would have strangled himself. But I was here, and he's ok. I've never been so thankful.
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