Unexpected inter-species comfort
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With the unfortunate Thong in hospital for a long stay, his best friend Thep seeks comfort wherever he can find it
WHO’D THINK that a cat fight from two weeks ago would force soi cat Thong to stay in the hospital for a long, long time?
I saw the fight. A strange cat had pushed Thong under some cardboard next door and was beating him up.
It was simple to stop the fight – some water aimed directly at this unknown cat. Then I called Thong to me and checked his body, but he didn’t seem hurt, not even a scratch.
I forgot about the fight until last week, when I noticed that Thong had stopped eating. He felt very hot, and he cried in pain when I lifted him up.
Of course I took him to the vet. At first, she couldn’t find anything wrong – no temperature at all. Because he was in so much pain, though, she kept him at the clinic for observation.
It’s lucky she did. An abscess had been hiding in his chest, slowly growing larger and larger. It took only a few more hours for it to begin to show.
It was massive. When the vet began cleaning it and removing the pus, she discovered that it stretched from one underarm to the other. She tells me the smell from the infection was extremely unpleasant.
Only Thong, the accident-prone cat, could end up with such a terrible wound.
The photo the vet sent me is horrible. Not only is Thong’s chest completely bare where the clinic had to shave him, but you can see two huge holes, each larger than my thumb, where the tissue under the skin had begun to die. The vet had to dig out this dead tissue, or the wound would never heal.
Those holes have to heal completely before the boy can come home.
I tell the vet that in that case, Thong’s friend Thep should join him at the clinic. The two boys are best friends and calm each other in difficult times – but not this time, alas.
The vet says there’s too much danger that Thep will try to clean Thong’s wounds himself, thereby re-introducing the infection.
At home, Thep doesn’t understand what’s happened to Thong. He spends his days outside looking for his friend. In the evenings, he comes inside. First, he runs from floor to floor, calling for his friend. Then he runs to me.
This cat, usually so frightened of people, curls up in my lap. For the rest of the night, he follows me wherever I go. As I sleep, he stays by my side. He’s so sure that I’m hiding Thong, and soon he’ll discover where.
I think he’s also grieving over the loss of his friend. Now he looks for comfort wherever he can find it, even with a human he doesn’t trust entirely.
It’s not so strange for a soi cat to find comfort from a human, but I just remembered two other animals who were able to help each other in a difficult time.
The death and destruction of the 2004 tsunami was overwhelming, affecting almost every living creature in the vast area.
The waves that hit Kenya swept people away as well as a mother hippo and her one-year-old baby. The mother was killed, but wildlife officials managed to save the baby.
They named him “Owen” and put him in a wildlife reserve, where he promptly began looking for a stepmama. For some reason, he chose a giant male tortoise.
The tortoise, over 100 years old, easily accepted his maternal responsibilities. The two became inseparable, eating and sleeping together.
I don’t know if the hippo and the tortoise are still together after 10 years, but I’m sure that when Thong comes home, Thep will be there to greet him.
