This is so totally amazing. Just look at her!

You wouldn’t even know she was injured!

Yesterday, the right side of her mouth and cheek were all red. They’d cleaned her up, so that was from being so swollen. Her front paws, as well.

While she has a hairline fracture in her jaw, the cut on her tongue is actually the worst injury. We’ll have to monitor it, in case it starts getting infected. If it does, we’ll probably smell it before we see it. We’ve got medication for her for the next five days, to be given with food, and she’s on soft food only for a while. We currently have her in baby jail, with the door closed, and Butterscotch has taken it over from Marlee. This way, we can also monitor her food.

She was completely calm during the ride home. We had to use my mother’s car again (still no word on the financing for the replacement vehicle, so the van is still prepped for trade in), and my daughter road in the back with her. She was able to open the door and hold her paws, while Tissue used her hand as a pillow.

*melt*

Currently, she’s behind me, growling at any cat she sees. Even Cheddar! It’ll take her some time to calm down.

Her bloodwork came back perfect. We will also keep an ear out for her lungs, because she was so frozen.

Speaking of which…

… this is where she got up into the engine compartment. The car was put together (car! ha! It’s a Nissan Armada. A perfect vehicle for our winters!!) enough that the Cat Lady was able to drive it, but she still didn’t have any heat. That will be fixed later. Somehow, Tissue squeezed her way up, basically into the fan belt, and got stuck. They could only see her tail. If they had tried to start the vehicle, the fan belt would have killed her. If they had tried to put it in neutral and push it into the garage, she would have been crushed. The only way to get her out was to dismantle the engine. By the time they got to her, she was unconscious from the cold. At the vet, they had to put stuff on her eyes to protect them, because they wouldn’t close or move.

The mechanics were amazed by the damage. When they first called the dealership garage, they thought the Cat Lady was talking about a squirrel stuck in there, because the space is so small. So was the space she first got into, by the muffler. That spot, where she would have been when they drove around, could not be seen. She would have been quite cozy in there, though it would have been a tight fit, and kept warm by the muffler while they were driving, but once the vehicle was off, that metal would have sucked the heat right out her. They asked about having the space blocked off, so no other animal could get in, but it’s there for a reason, and can’t be sealed off.

She was able to get out of that, at least. The space into the engine compartment was smaller, then once she got stuck, she just panicked and started destroying anything she could reach. As for the damage to the hoses, the mechanic said that was the sort of damage a racoon might make. That it was done by a cat was astonishing.

She did $3000 in damage to their vehicle.

When the cat lady paid the bill, I hear the receptionist saying it was something over $1,300.

I feel so bad. All this over what was supposed to be a cheap spay!

Meanwhile, as far as she knows, the Cat Lady is still scheduled for major surgery tomorrow. Whether is gets cancelled at the last minute, it’s still hard to say.

While at the veterinary hospital and talking to the staff about Tissue as they called up the billing information, they started talking about how much they were going to miss her. It seems she was very affectionate, and all over the staff. My daughter described her habit of spinning around while being pet, and they just started nodding; she was doing the same thing for them!

She’s acting like she’s got no injuries at all. The Cat Lady made sure to stay out of her sight as best she could, in case Tissue associates her with trauma now. She was calm in our carrier, the whole time. Not that she’d be able to break out of this one. It has clips to lift the top off, but since it has a door at the top, we never use them, so we added the screws to hold it together. Even if the clips get opened, that thing won’t come apart without a screwdriver.

Everyone is just amazed by her recovery. Especially the staff at the vet’s.

Now that Tissue is home, she’s here to stay! Adopting her out is now out of the question, as is taking her to be spayed.

No, she’s not out of the woods yet, but it’s mostly just observing her, and giving her tongue and jaw time to heal.

Under the circumstances, we couldn’t have gotten a better prognosis.

The Re-Farmer