GAR! Sometimes I do amazingly dumb things.
Take yesterday, for example. We were walking to Atlas Cafe to have lunch when we met a cat. It was obviously someone's loved pet, obviously lost, hungry, filthy and sick. We gave it some food, and Jeremy called Animal Care and Control, who told us to catch it and bring it in.
Aargh. I had the poor thing in my hands, and it was so frail I didn't think it had any fight left in it. Wrong. It panicked, bit me and fled.
Cat bites are bad. 80% get infected. Cat teeth are like sharp, toxic little syringes perfectly designed for getting infectious agents deep beneath the skin. I once worked for a vet so I knew enough to go straight to the ER at SF General - a story in itself. They gave me a tetanus injection and a prescription for 875mg of Augmentin. I'm sure you can imagine what that kind of antibiotic load does to your gastric microflora.
So, I feel awful. My right hand is hot, pink and spherical. And someone's lovely long-haired black cat is still lost, sick and hungry, but now also very scared.
Gar gar gar.
If anyone knows anyone who lost such a cat near the corner of Alabama and 22nd in San Francisco, mail me at rachel at goop dot org.
Gar.