161/365: Cat Misery – Bitten!

10th of June

How ironic it is that it was just yesterday when I was sharing a story about the mystery of a dead cat and my usual passion towards stray cats.  Today a very unfortunate incident involving a cat happened again.

It was raining hard all night and it was still raining in the dawn when I woke up today so I decided to get up early and prepare for work.  Living in Manila for years I am certain that heavy traffic is expected on this kind of weather.  Most likely the roads are flooded.  As I was preparing for work I was also stressing myself on how can I go to work early.  Today is an important day and I can’t be late.  Leaving home the earliest is the only solution so I’ll have extra time if ever an untoward incident happens.

So it was still dark when I hurriedly stepped out of our door all dressed up with my heeled shoes on.  Suddenly there was a wild sound from a cat who got hurt followed by a searing pain in my lower right leg.
I stepped on a cat and it attacked me!

I realized that seconds after hearing the cat cry and consecutively feeling the pain in my lower right leg. The cat hurriedly scoured away. It may have seek shelter during the rainy night and probably get comfortable with the doormat on our doorstep.

I took a hurried look on my right leg and saw a mark but I was still hurrying so I really didn’t had a clear look on how serious the wound was.  I went back inside the house and found the bottle of alcohol that I usually use to sanitize my hand when I’m working on my lappy. I hurriedly poured an amount of alcohol to the wound and ouch!  That was really painful I thought.

I then hurried out again because I can see hubby is now waiting holding the gate open for me waiting for me to be out so he can close it and then drive me to work. He asked about hearing a hurt cat and I casually replied that I stepped on tit.

It was still raining and I can feel the splatter of the water on my legs particularly on the wounded part, when I walk the distance from the door to the gate.  Along the drive I noticed that the pain is persistent and when I take a look there seemed to be some blood and that it looked like a prominent wound.  Hubby reminded me to check on it but I said that I’ll just go to the office clinic which I did.

It was in the clinic when I realized how the wound really looked like.  It does looks nasty! However the nurse is unable to tell if it is just a scratch or a bite.  After the interview, cleaning and a lot of “sweet scolding” from the company nurse on the manner I handled the incident I was instructed to consult a doctor as soon as possible. She said the doctor will be the one to examine if it’s just a scratch or a bite.

When I went to the doctor later that day, the doctor took just one look and confidently declared – BITE!



The result?
Two immediate injections for today. One is the first shot of anti-rabies together with the very painful and “arm-crippling” anti-tetanus shot.  There are four more shots to go which will be given in the span of 30 days.  I feel more pain when I was told of the total cost of the injections - a whopping PhP11,000 ($255.00)!  Aaw!  Thank God it is covered by my health insurance. 

I was advised by the doctor to observe the cat for a certain period.  If it dies I’m in serious trouble (sigh and sad face insert here).  The problem is that I’m not sure which among the four cats who adopted themselves on our compound who attacked me. I did not bother to check because I am hurrying to work.

There’s a lot of lessons I learned from this including the very basic that health is important above all else. I exposed myself to a more serious damage because I gave more importance to work rather than taking care of my wound and doing what should be done.  I would gladly share these lessons learned in the next post.

I’m not blaming the cat nor my liking for them will change.  It was an accident caused by my carelessness.  I accidentally hurt it and it defensively bit me.  I know that is part of their being a smart creature.

I’m sure everything’s gonna be alright.  After all I am cat woman!  Meow…