Okay sooner or later I knew this would happen.I wouldn’t feel like a real blogger until it did. I’ve written about my cats before in print, but I’ve never blogged about them, but cat-blogging is a kind of ancient (more or less) blogging traditipn and I feel like I need to call on the help of any cat lovers who will read this and understand.
My beloved cat Bruno, a hefty orange tabby is in the the hospital now. He’s expected to recover, but he’s 8 years old and he’s developed a progressive jaw/bone infection problem that caused him to have to have a half dozen teeth extracted under general anesthesia.
He never showed any signs of medical discomfort in his life before, he never showed any sign that anything was wrong this time, except that two days ago I noticed he had his lower fang outside his upper lip. (Cats are said to have a high threshhold of pain so who knows?).
Anyway, I whipped him up to the Eastside Animal Hospital here in NYC with the help of my neighbor Larry Rosenblatt, for whom I’ll forever be grateful and Bruno’s vet, Dr. Korin, found there had been a rapid developoment of what we thought just a few months ago was a single problematic tooth we could wait on because of small but real risks of anestheia during extraction (I know: lesson learned).
Anyway I just heard from the vet that 24 hours after the operation, Bruno’s basically doing okay although he has a slight fever and they’re going to keep him a coule more days because they did a lot of work.
Before I get to the point let me tell you about Bruno. He s just the sweetest. most temerate living companion you could possibly imagine. As such he’s the opposite of me but he’s magnanimously content to allow me to stay on his ranch (as he regards this aartment) and rustle up food for him. He is a gentle king of the beasts, and everyone who meets hm is charmed by him and comes to love him.
I got him after my last cat Stumpy died and my high schoool classmate Holly Staver who runs the wonderful cat rescue organization City Critters in NYC, found Bruno, a stray on a Brooklyn rooftop. (After Stumpy died I wrote about it inthe New York Observer and asked people to contribute to a fund for rescued, injured cats that they still call–with a nod to Jerry Lewis–“Stumpy’s Kids”
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(A number of people have told me that my column about Stumpy and his death were helpful to them in getting through their loss , so I’ll give you a link to it and hope it can help if gof forbid you have to go through it.
Anyway I was so attached to Stumpy I couldn’t consider getting another cat for many months until Holly found a stray cat who looked just like Stumpy, which Bruno does, so there’s a kind of Vertigo thing going on, yes I admit it. But orange cats are the greatest. Up in Spanish Harlem I’m told they’re called “Mambo Cats”.
It’s amazing how these creatures worm their way into your heart, your soul ,your brain. I once speculated in print about “the toxoplasmosis connection” how the cat parasite infects its owners and changes their personalities to become obsesive cat lovers. I’ve seen this happen! I grew up with dogs, but when the Yippie commune across the street from me at the time on the Lower East Side, gave me a Siamese kitten called I called Smoochy, I was totally hooked.
Anyway if you’re a cat person, you know. If not, don’t waste our time negging my cat or cat people in your comments. I guarantee if you do, it’ll put a curse on you and someone you love (if indeed you’re capable of love) and you’ll regret it the rest of your miserable life.
But those of you who understand can understand why even a “mild fever” after an operation can cause some of us to freak out.
So, I’m asking you, even if you can’t stand my opinions political and personal, and you love cats anyway this is a plea that you send good vibes to a loving deserving animal named Bruno: that he gets home and lives a long happy life after this trauma. I also guarantee that if you do so, you will receive a blessing (and not the chain letter kind).
Just think of a lovable orange blob named Bruno and send him your prayers, sacred and secular. You will be rewarded.
Thank you all, ahead of time. I will be sure to tell Bruno about it.
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