Three Legs

I feel like I am seeing too many animals walking around holding up a leg lately.

Most of you will recall we had some adventures with Oscar about three weeks ago. Oscar is our stray cat that we have been feeding for two years. Oscar is feral, wishes to remain feral, and has no interest in cultivating a relationship with us. He only wants us to feed him . . . canned food and table scraps only please.

When we noticed that Oscar was only using three legs we got lucky and managed to trap him. He went to the vet and had the works. He got long acting antibiotics and steroids for the puncture wounds on his leg. He was vaccinated. And of course he was “tutored.” Oscar was not a willing participant in any of this and in fact had to be gassed in the live trap at the vet’s office in order to be safely handled.

Once we brought Oscar home I thought we might never see him again. I feared I was right for awhile. However about five days ago he started coming around again, and he has come every night since. Of course this made me very happy.

Unfortunately we noticed last night that Oscar was holding up the same front leg again, and he was doing so again tonight. Since he is more skittish of us than ever I am 10000% positive that we have zero chance of trapping him again. I’ve already mentioned to Jason that maybe we should try setting the live trap again. He has already said the only thing we’re likely to trap in it is an opossum. I know he is right and that realistically we’ve done what we can for Oscar.

In what feels like a parade of three legged critters I watched a skunk slowly make its way across our driveway on three legs yesterday. In fact he was holding up his left front leg just like Oscar. I waited patiently – and from a great distance – for the skunk to make his way across the driveway and into the woods. Then I hustled to the house and sent Jason off in search of the poor little guy with a rifle so he could shoot it. Unfortunately since the injured skunk was heading right into the woods when I saw him Jason was unable to find him. For anyone who is wondering I am no fan of skunks (although I do think they are kind of cute), but I am even less a fan of injured animals suffering.

Jason deserves lots of kudos. He is constantly getting volunteered to help me deal with things like feral cats and three legged skunks. I am absolutely positive that the last thing he was hoping to do yesterday was traipse around in the woods with a rifle looking for an injured skunk. However he is smart enough to realize that dealing with feral cats and skunks is far more pleasant than dealing with an unhappy Melissa. Sadly he knows that potentially taking a direct hit from a skunk is less troublesome than dealing with an unhappy wife. He is definitely right about that!

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waiting for breakfast; Apollo, Ritchie, Levendi, Rip, Moe, Thomas and Hemi