Mad Max

Friday morning Max (our ten year old cat - named after Mad Max) comes in and hides under a piece of furniture. After I wake up a little bit I take a look and realize that he's got what looks like a bloody gash on his face. I call the office and say I'm not coming in, drop C at school and come back for Max. I take him down to the vet and they say it looks like he got into a cat fight a WEEK ago (are you getting why this is called The Bad Mommy?). The injury wasn't very obvious till it abscessed, necrosis set in and the fur around it fell out. He was good for the vet for the first five minutes then he tried to bite him so Dr. Wonderful gave Max a shot of kitty valium.... I left him there so they could scope out the extent of the injuries. Forty five minutes of surgery later, they shave half his face (the abscess was the size of a silver dollar), stitch him up (18 stainless steel stitches), put in a drain and after I paid the $400 ransom they gave him back. He's housebound now for at least till next week (when the drain is removed) and not very happy about it. Let's face it - he hasn't had to use a litter box in years and really, he was just fine with that. But he can't wear his collar, which means he can't get back in the cat door so he's confined to the bathroom most of the time. We'll see how long all of us can stand it.