Willis is three down, six to go. Dern cat.

If cats have nine lives, Willis has now burned through three of them.

The first one was when he went overboard on Marquesa several years ago.  I think that mishap took years off my own life, and landed me with a broken toe in the ER. In my haste to 'save' him, I dove overboard but got my toe hung up on the life lines. Geesh.

Last Christmas, he had an encounter with a cotton mouth, the day after I left for Japan to spend Christmas with Ellie.  That was a scary one...he was lucky he didn't burn through all the remaining eight lives with that one.

Now, here we are again, at the vet with a nasty, oozing, abscess on his right side.  There is one puncture wound, not two.  Yet, the vet is certain it was something venomous that nailed him once more.  When I took him to the vet on Saturday to have his wound looked at, there was a distinctive lump, the skin was blackened, and you could see one puncture and an abrasion.

On Saturday, he tried to behave himself with the
doctor, but he'd peed and puked in his car carrier
on the way to the vet.  He loves the sailboat;
he HATES cars with a fiery passion. He was
down to 13lbs, 14 ounces, too.  He never fully
recovered his weight after the snake bite last year.

All was well until they put a stick up his butt,
and gave him a shot, and shaved his hair,
and cleaned his wound, and gave him oral
medicine.  By then, he was OVER. IT.

He was none too pleased about having to wear a cone, either.

This weekend, any time we would open the door
for him to go out on the porch to find a laying spot,
we would get 'stuck' on the door frame and freeze
in his tracks like he couldn't get through the door.
Such a drama llama. He would do the same on a
table leg or chair leg.  He wasn't trying to rub off
the cone, he just would freeze in his tracks until
somebody noticed his 'predicament' and helped
him along his way.  The dern cat. 😿

All weekend, I tended to his wound, wiping the area
with a warm damp cloth, sopping up the nasty smelly
infection, then spraying the surface area with medicine.
This morning he returned to the vet for a follow up visit.
She had to shave more of his fur, as it was getting matted
and stuck in the wound.  When she shaved too close to the
wound, the decaying skin sloughed off, leaving a gaping,
ouchy hole in his side. He was NONE too pleased.
She tried to clean him up a bit, but he got vicious, not
that I blame him. She followed up with a steroid
pill to take the edge off his pain, and to keep him
relatively subdued for the day. The boy is worse for the wear.

As soon as he got sprung from his cat carrier at home, he went
straight to my computer...I kid you not.

It was as if he wanted the world to be given a Willis update.

He's ridiculous.

I coaxed him out in to the sunshine on our back
deck (after he gut 'stuck' in the door frame for
the 47th time in three days).  He sandwiched
himself between his kitty grass and catnip.

I know when I put my face to the sun, I
instantly feel better, too! 😎

Soon he settled down next to me out on the deck.
The vet says he best stay sequestered on our
porch, deck, or with us on the boat.  The days
of him begging to go outside to freely roam
are over for good. There's too many dangerous,
poisonous critters in southwest Florida, and I
can't put him on my insurance as a dependent!

He settled in to the chair by himself, laying in a sun puddle...

...while I scrubbed his cat carrier for the second time in three days.

He jumped on the table to either rub his face on the conch shell,
or he was trying to tell me it's five o'clock somewhere, and he
desperately needed a stiff drink!  Hell, I need a stiff drink!

By mid afternoon, he finally ate a little food, and decided to
'take a rest' on his cat walk.  I guess this is as close as he will
get to 'outside' any more, unless we are sailing. He knows
that word, 'outside', too.  I swear he is a dog in cat's clothing.

I was a little worried that he might get his cone
'stuck' on the cat walk, or he would not see well
over the cone and lose his footing, so I coaxed
him back 'inside' for now.

He got fed a few treats, got another dose of medicated
spray on his owie, and he's now resting comfortably by my side
as I finish up the last of my grades for the semester.

Willis wanted me to thank you all for your

prayers and concern.  He's not out of the woods

yet, but hopefully now he can begin to heal.

G'nite, y'all!