And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Couple'o years ago, we--meaning my treasured wife--were taking care of a friend's cat while they were on vacation. The cat required daily insulin shots. On the second morning of caring for the cat, a Sunday, the cat bit my wife on the index finger--hard.
She came home and immediately washed and bandaged the bite. By that evening, the wound was oozing a milky white fluid, and I told her that we needed to get into our family practioner the following Monday morning.
In the exam room that Monday morning, after hearing the story of the wound and looking at the hand, the doctor said--and I quote--"I can't treat you here. You need to go to the Emergency Room, and don't be surprised if they send you to the Operating Room".
And that's exactly what happened. The following Tuesday afternoon, she was having hand surgery to clean the wound down to the bone. The infection that the cat bite introduced placed her in danger of losing her index finger if not her hand.
The cost for the surgery and about a month of physical therapy afterwards was about $15k. [The hand surgeon said that he did 11 surgeries a month after cat bites.]
Cat bites are no joke. I'd avoid Tinks like the plague.
At the time, we had very adequate medical insurance coverage (still do, but our insurance carriers have since changed), and we didn't think at all about who would pay for all this.....we assumed that our medical insurance provider would. Whatever the deductible was going to be was not a problem for us....these were our friends, after all, and we wouldn't dare present them with a bill for such a thing.
However, when a pet from one home bites someone from outside the home, it is the homeowner's insurance company which foots the bill. Our preferences were completely irrelevant here....the lawyers from our medical insurance company were going to make sure that the homeowners insurance paid.
And our friends (the cat owners) carried their homeowners policy with a third insurance-agent friend. After the claim, that insurance company dropped their homeowner's policy. They had to go out and find another insurance company willing to take them on.
Everyone involved in this story are friends. We raised our kids together; our kids were in the same Scouting groups; we've eaten at each other's tables, and taken vacations together.
But despite what turned out to be a more-serious-than-you-might-imagine injury, and what ostensibly looked like one friend sueing another over a medical claim, we all remain friends to this day.
My girlfriends cat bit her a couple of years ago while she was trying to get it into the cat carrier. Bad infection, shots and a course of antibiotics for two weeks. Same cat last year, a friend of hers who was younger and faster tried to get it into the carrier again. Bit and scratched so bad, she had to go to the doctor and get treated. Lost a day of work.
I will and have done many things for her, including going up ladders; but I will not go near that cat. And I've had many cats. But I've never known a cat so willing to seriously maim their human. As I think on it, all my cats were more or less strays that came to us and asked to come in. She got the hell cat from a rescue shelter, and the cat hid from her and everyone for the first month. Didn't want to live with humans.
I have a few cats in the barn and greenhouses. The greenhouse cats are nearly feral and I have my welding gloves with gauntlets when I need to handle them. This morning they had cornered a small gopher snake and were “playing” with it. First time I’ve felt sorry for a snake.
Stay missing.
ReplyDeleteCouple'o years ago, we--meaning my treasured wife--were taking care of a friend's cat while they were on vacation. The cat required daily insulin shots. On the second morning of caring for the cat, a Sunday, the cat bit my wife on the index finger--hard.
ReplyDeleteShe came home and immediately washed and bandaged the bite. By that evening, the wound was oozing a milky white fluid, and I told her that we needed to get into our family practioner the following Monday morning.
In the exam room that Monday morning, after hearing the story of the wound and looking at the hand, the doctor said--and I quote--"I can't treat you here. You need to go to the Emergency Room, and don't be surprised if they send you to the Operating Room".
And that's exactly what happened. The following Tuesday afternoon, she was having hand surgery to clean the wound down to the bone. The infection that the cat bite introduced placed her in danger of losing her index finger if not her hand.
The cost for the surgery and about a month of physical therapy afterwards was about $15k. [The hand surgeon said that he did 11 surgeries a month after cat bites.]
Cat bites are no joke. I'd avoid Tinks like the plague.
I've had lots of cats, lots of bites and hundreds of scratches. Never had an infection. Did your friend pay the bill?
ReplyDelete"...Did your friend pay the bill?"
DeleteAnd that's the second part of the story.
At the time, we had very adequate medical insurance coverage (still do, but our insurance carriers have since changed), and we didn't think at all about who would pay for all this.....we assumed that our medical insurance provider would. Whatever the deductible was going to be was not a problem for us....these were our friends, after all, and we wouldn't dare present them with a bill for such a thing.
However, when a pet from one home bites someone from outside the home, it is the homeowner's insurance company which foots the bill. Our preferences were completely irrelevant here....the lawyers from our medical insurance company were going to make sure that the homeowners insurance paid.
And our friends (the cat owners) carried their homeowners policy with a third insurance-agent friend. After the claim, that insurance company dropped their homeowner's policy. They had to go out and find another insurance company willing to take them on.
Everyone involved in this story are friends. We raised our kids together; our kids were in the same Scouting groups; we've eaten at each other's tables, and taken vacations together.
But despite what turned out to be a more-serious-than-you-might-imagine injury, and what ostensibly looked like one friend sueing another over a medical claim, we all remain friends to this day.
You were tested. And you rose to the challenge.
DeleteCongrats.
My girlfriends cat bit her a couple of years ago while she was trying to get it into the cat carrier. Bad infection, shots and a course of antibiotics for two weeks.
ReplyDeleteSame cat last year, a friend of hers who was younger and faster tried to get it into the carrier again. Bit and scratched so bad, she had to go to the doctor and get treated. Lost a day of work.
I will and have done many things for her, including going up ladders; but I will not go near that cat. And I've had many cats. But I've never known a cat so willing to seriously maim their human.
As I think on it, all my cats were more or less strays that came to us and asked to come in. She got the hell cat from a rescue shelter, and the cat hid from her and everyone for the first month. Didn't want to live with humans.
I have a few cats in the barn and greenhouses. The greenhouse cats are nearly feral and I have my welding gloves with gauntlets when I need to handle them. This morning they had cornered a small gopher snake and were “playing” with it. First time I’ve felt sorry for a snake.
ReplyDeleteTinks told me to not rat him out... Or else.
ReplyDelete