The plan was to remove the cone at the beginning of the week and make sure that Ampersand wasn’t rubbing his eye. By Wednesday evening it was time. The eye was as good as it was going to be for a while, not perfect, still healing. It looks strange from some angles and normal from others. The miraculous thing is that he can see and his eye is no longer bizarrely red yet the lens is a little cloudy in the center. At any rate, the eye is the beautiful green again.

We couldn’t just take the cat, we had to wait for the vet who was busy, so we hung around with our friends, some old some new. Two little ones were in traps: one was found outside and the other in an office, both adorable. We still love Moo but adding her to our brood is not a good idea. Our mother cat is upset having Ampersand back. She was actually upset having him before: he loves to be with her and around her and she doesn’t want any part of him. There’s been a lot of hissing and bopping–on her part–I cringe in fear that she will get him in the eye, which, by the way may have been the cause of the eye problem in the first place.

I opened the door to the cage and it looked like Amp was going to just run for it; he was ready. But he’s a shy, scared guy and I have never held him. Our relationship has always been on his terms. He’ll come up to me and nuzzle, bonk, talk. He has never been on my lap of with me on the couch. We had to wait for two technicians to get him into the carrier. They put it in the cage to coax him in. There was a lot of growling and hissing but finally Ampersand was in the carrier and ready to go. We gave him some time in it to calm down before we let him out to give the place a sniff over.

 

Ampersand, before leaving his cage, where he lived for almost two months.

 

Little trapped feral kittens.

 

 

Visiting Moo

 

 

Home

 

Getting comfy

 

 

By Carl Sandburg