My sweet kitty and his gnarly wound. This was Charlie a few days after taking him to the animal hospital to treat an abscess, caused by a puncture bite from Jonesy. He’s shaved, scabby and stitched up.

Don’t tell the vet, but we let him out of the collar a couple of times each day. Supervised, of course. We watch him like a newborn, just to make sure he doesn’t scratch at his stitches. Charlie gets so down and defeated when he has the cone of shame on, that it breaks our hearts and we just give in.

It’s bad enough that we can’t take him outside on his leash, we have to give him a little sense of normalcy.

Ask any animal owner slash lover and they’d tell you that yes, animals have feelings. I firmly believe that.

Ever since Charlie came back from the vet, cone of shame and all, Jonesy can barely be in the same room as him. And when they are, she casts a wide berth and she doesn’t dare go near him.

Some may argue that Charlie must smell different, what with the antibiotics in his system and gauze around his neck. But I believe that she does feel shame about what the pain that she caused. Mind you, she was probably defending herself (a little too heavy-handed) while wrasslin’ with Charlie. Course, Charlie was most likely the one to instigate the rough-housing.

Charlie should know that Jonesy, being the withdrawn and anti-social type, is not the kind of cat that would enjoy a play fight. Or a mount from behind.

And because we feel that she is aware of what happened and the fact that for the first few days, she couldn’t even look us in the eye, that we don’t punish her. That’s not to say that Charlie will feel the same way once the cone comes off for good.

Ever since Charlie got “coned”, he’s learned to tweak his regular habits and routine. For starters, the cumbersome 10cm cone is probably pretty heavy, not to mention incredibly awkward when it comes to walking around. Our little cat now has a strut a la pimp. His whole body sorta does the sashay from side to side, in order to balance the cone. Not that we’re laughing, but it’s pretty cute.

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My sweet boy and the cone of shame.

Sean and I rushed Charlie to the animal hospital on Sunday when we noticed a huge bump under the right side of his jaw. We thought it might have been a bee sting from his sojourns out in our backyard. But it turned out to be a lot worse.

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How do I know when Charlie wants to go outside? I think it’s pretty obvious.