Meowllo everypawdy, come on in and take a seat. Get your favorite beverage, sit back and relax. it’s time fur another Service Cat Monday story. We didn’t get any questions last week, so we’ll be tellin’ an actual story ‘bout us. And yep, ya’ read dat right, today da story’ll be ‘bout us, Raena and me and of course mommy. We was gonna pick up where we left off last week, but mommy never lissens to me. Me told her we had purrlenty of stories to tell without her makin’ more, but…well, me’ll just tell ya’ ‘bout it. Ifin you’ve missed any posts in this series, purrlease click on da links at da bottom of this posty. As with all our Service Cat/Educational posts, da followin’ will be in human English. So let’s get to it.
It happened last night at dinner time and no, there are no photos. Ain’t that the way it always goes? Anyways, it had been dark and stormy all day yesterday and mommys arthritis was really acting up. She was hurting really bad and could barely get around. None of that is new. It’s pretty common actually, especially in the winter, and definitely now that her meds have been messed with. We’ve got to get the government outta medicine. Anyways, most of ya’ know we have a lot of “stuff”. Till the manager was finally told to leave mommy alone, she used to write us up all the time for being “cluttered”. Which of course isn’t any of her business and isn’t against the law. While there are a lot of reasons for our clutter, one is that mommy is a furniture walker.
Now a lot of you just said to yourselves, “A what? What’s a furniture walker?” So let me explain. Mommy, or any furniture walker for that matter, holds onto pieces of furniture, doors, walls, or tables to steady themselves when walking around. Me has told ya’ll that one of mommys problems is that she falls a lot. She often can’t feel her legs, feet and/or arms. Because this has been happening for so long, mommy has adjusted and can mostly make her extremities work anyways. Never the less, she still falls pretty regularly. Usually, she doesn’t get hurt too bad, because she’s learned to roll with it. But, when you add dizzy and an overload of pain to the mix then you get what we got last night at dinnertime.
Is dinner ready yet?
Mommy had been in the kitchen preparing our dinner plates and hollering for us to come up and get ready for dinner. Me was in the litter box and sis Raena was in the kitchen with mommy, so me wasn’t in any hurry. Me figured Raena could handle anything that might occur. The biggest thing that has happened during food prep is mommy dropping a plate and having to do a quick clean up. Yep, Raena could deal with that. Me finished up mes business and headed down the hall towards the kitchen just in time to see it all. Mommy had prepared our plates and was taking the bags of freeze dried noms back to their place on the external pantry shelf in the dining room by the front door. She only had one free hand, her left. Mommy’s a righty, by the way.
Mommy caught a glimpse of me and told me to come on down. Raena had taken her spot on the small brown cat tree that sits in the dining room; to continue to watch mommy. And then as if in slow motion, mommy got dizzy and lost her balance. She started reaching out and grasping at everything. That brown cat tree, her end table, a dining room chair. It didn’t matter what she grabbed. They all gave way and moved from their spots and provided mommy with no stability. Mommy dropped the bags of our noms and started grasping with her other hand as well. The brown cat tree just kept moving further away from mommy as did her end table and that dining room chair. After what seemed like forever…BOOM!!! Mommy finally hit the floor. As mommy fell, the cat tree had cut up her right arm. A fingernail got caught in the the carpeting and pulled back and broke off. Mommy landed, all sprawled out, backside to the floor. Her behind actually landed on a bag of our noms. She’s gonna have to order more, cuz they’re all crumbs now. Not sure what she hit her head on, but she’s gonna have a shiner for sure.
I’s luvs this toy.
Anyways, me ran down the hall to mommy and Raena flew over mommy towards the phone. Again, as if in slow motion, mommy laid there in total shock and began looking around. Mommy could feel something poking into her back, so she struggled to sit up. Me tried to get behind her to help push her up, but she had landed on one of our track and ball toys that was in mes way. Mommy finally sat up and hollered at Raena to leave the phone alone. Mommy said we didn’t need an ambulance. Mommy reached under herself and pulled out the bag of noms she had squished and started crying. Mommy told Raena and me how sorry she was that she had crushed our noms and promised she’d get us more. Then she apologized for breaking our track and ball toy. It was Raenas’ favorite. She looked around for something to hold onto to try to pull herself up. She could sort of feel her legs, but they were like jelly. Her cut arm was throbbing and she could feel pain everywhere. She noticed that Raena looked stressed and confused as she sat at mommys feet licking her toes.
Take dat you ole box you.
Everything that could have provided support for mommy had moved just out of reach. So she pulled her legs up and tried to push herself up with her hands. She told me to move out from behind her and told Raena to get on the Liberty tree beside her in the living room. Mommy was afraid she’d fall back down and didn’t want to fall on us. Finally mommy managed to push herself up. Then came the clean up as always. That’s the part mommy hates the most. Once everything was back in it’s place, mommy went back to the kitchen on her wobbly legs to get our dinner plates. That’s when mommy finally saw the blood dripping from her arm. She had a cut and scrape from her elbow just passed her wrist. Didn’t do her carpal tunnel any favors. She quickly cleaned up and brought our plates to our mat and called for us to come and eat. Raena and me sat at the edge of the living room watching and waiting for mommy to fall again. Thankfully, after she placed our plates on the mat, she sat down to look at her boo boos.
This brown tree in da dining room is just da right size
fur a kitten like me.
Well, the last thing Raena and me was interested in was eating dinner. We both jumped into mommys lap to give her some purr love. She’s gonna be okay, but she’s gonna be really sore for at least a few days. Mommy falls everyday, but the big ones like this, don’t happen that often. Mommy says that she gets hurt the most when she tries to fight the fall, and that’s exactly what she did last night. Unfortunately, there’s nothing we kitties can do when mommy falls. We can only be there to comfort her after it’s all over. Y, Raena even let mommy sleep in this morning.
Now me knows a lot of you are saying, “Well if you don’t do anything to stop your mommy from falling, how is this a story about Service Cats?” If you’ll remember, sis Raena’s first response was to head for the phone to call for help. See, we saw the blood before mommy did, and that’s a 911 event. Altho’ the blood wasn’t coming from mommys head and she was still conscious, which would mean we shouldn’t call for help. It’s okay tho’, Raena’s still learning and mommy’s proud of how she responded and that when told to leave the phone she immediately obeyed and took her spot beside mommy. Altho something was in the way, mes intentions were to help mommy sit up. And mes first response was to come to mommys aid instead of running to hide. Yes, mommy said she’s very proud of me as well. As we’ve said many times, it’s very important for a Service Cat to not only know their name, but to respond to it every time. Mommy says that she no longer has to “tell” us me everything, because we are me is able to assess the situation and determine the proper course of action to take. This happens because of our constant training and our bond with and concern for mommy.
I’s not leavin’ your side mommy. I’s’ll go wherever
you go.
So there ya’ have it. A brand new story ’bout us workin’ today. Raena did well, and is purroving she’s gonna be a great Service Cat. Reckon she’s not as droll as me once thought she was. Ifin ya’ have any questions ‘bout training or anything in general purrlease feel free to ask. We try to answer all questions in a timely manner. Due to mommys fall and subsequent injuries, we’re gonna be a bit slow fur at least da next few days, so purrlease bear with us.
Just let me have a little nappy furst.
Service Cats U.S. 